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WORLD \^ AR 

AT 

ITS CLIMAX 

Bei^ig Persofial 
l}p.pri}!ts of the Great Co)ifliet 
j cifiJ Close up Glimpse \ 

J of the 

World Tragedy 



PRINTED BY 

THE ROYCROFTERS 

E.\ST AURORA 
N.Y. 






(.X^PYRIGHT, \9ti 

BY 

ROWARO H. OHARA 

SYRACVSK. X. Y. 



DEC 30 '22 



:C1AG020 4S 



To 
GEORGE WILLIAM O'HARA 

(Ml/ Son J 

Who voluultviod to follow the Stars 
and Stripes, porforniiui'- his full part 
in the hazardous work of a niaehine 
gun battalion in Flanders fields and 
Fi'auce, eseaping- unhurt, this narra- 
tive is dedieated with a heart 
full of gratitude for his 
dcliveranee. THE 
NARRATOR 



Of this edition 

World War At Its Climax 

there are printed 

Five Hundred Copies 

for private 

circulation 

This book is 

number 




Foreword 

N NARRATING or portraying his un- 
usual experiences in the thrilling scenes 
of 1918 which marked a momentous and 
notable journey by twelve newspaper 
men under most favorable auspices and 
the escort of the British Government, the 
writer does not attempt to dignify his 
production by calling it a book or himself an author. Nor 
has he the vanity to predict for it general circulation or 
currency. Not for one moment does he harbor the thought 
that untold thousatids avidly await its appearance, antici- 
pating that it is to contain ivonderful World War secrets 
or iviil seek to solve the many vexatious problems arising 
out of that great conflict. On the contrary, it is a tale told 
by a newspaper publisher whose aim is to collect a few of the 
outstanding things he saw and ivrote about ichile abroad, 
and talked of when he returned home. Primarily, kith and 
kin were first and foremost in his mind, and if the record 
of his experiences and observatio?is in the terrific, crashing 
days ichich brought an end to the most cruel and awful war 
in history, interests or enlightens those for whom its 
compilation is intended, he will feel himself fully fustifi.ed 
for time taken in writing his humble effort, " All of ichich 
he saio and a part of which he was.'' 
When events herein recorded were occurring Germany was 
charged with monstrous outrages, until vandalism and 
brutalities; and Allies and Allied sympathizers sought to 
wreak vengeance upon her unfortunate head. Time may 
soften, and history correct, reports made in the heat and 
bitterness of war at its zenith, ivhen such aspersions were 
uttered. Three and a half years have elapsed since hostilities 



ceased, hut solemn fledges made by Americans and the 
Allies, that never again would they buy anything made in 
Germany, have been broken, and every country is now 
seeking eagerly to re-establish former trade relations. 
In his own way, too, the writer will tell the part, as he 
observed it, ivhich American boys played in a great world 
fight under west European skies, where their deeds of heroism 
were almost as countless as the stars themselves, and where, 
as one chronicler of that day wrote: " Millions of men have 
stood immovable or have pushed forward with courage 
which is greater than that required to face death. Death 
is merely a part of the hideousness of war — the part which 
has made a cemetery of each hillside in Eastern France." 
^ " The thing is unimaginable — the sights that shock the 
brain, the scent of poisoywus gases, the thin, .sharp sound of 
flying fragments of steel, the whistle of shells, increasing 
rapidly in volume, until with deafening noise there comes 
the explosion — all tend to tear doum the untl to withstand, 
and to destroy the ivill to advance." 

" Under such conditions men do not pause to make small 
calculations; they act by virtue of that which is either 
inbred or inherent. Their fears are terrific, and yet they 
push these aside, trample over them and attain the heights 
of ideal courage." 

In all history can be found no other three months so 
epochal, so fraught with mighty happenings. Never before 
was it vouchsafed to a little band of civilian observers like 
ours to be at the very storm center of events in the most 
crucial period of a war, the greatest of all wars. On our 
arrival in Liverpool, news came that United States troops 
had takeii St. Mihiel; French and Americans had attacked 
in the Argonne; Bulgaria had signed an armistice and 
surrendered, while soon afterward Kaiser Wilhelm loith- 
drew from battle fronts, where in desperation he had gone 
to rally in person his retreating army, and returning to 
Berlin, " sulked in his tent." There were rumors that he 



refused to leave Berlin and that death to him was preferable 
to surrender. Also, there were hints at suicide. In the 
interim of our arrival in Liverpool and return to London 
on the night of November 10, fighting hadheen the most terrific, 
the most awful in the history of a world which had stood 
aghast. But the mighty hordes of Germany, with the vaunted, 
impenetrable Hindenburg line, began to yield, the shell of 
Central Europe tottered and crumbled, and on November 9 
the Kaiser abdicated and the day following fled to Hol- 
land. Next day the Armistice was signed. 
So the newspaper group had seen the battle fronts from 
Belgium down through Eastern France, a long, black strip 
of ruin from one to forty miles wide, had seen war in its 
fiercest activities and in its cataclysmic finish. 
When in New York in late November, their mission ful- 
filled, the little band of Editorial pilgrims bade each other 
a fond adieu, with a God-be-with-you-till-we-meet- 
again, it ended THE GREAT ADVENTURE— which, 
in the writer's life, remains the supreme event or experience 
whose friendships and glories are destined to enrich, 
brighten and gladden his memory down to the day when the 
summons shall come for him to pass on. 

Edward H. O ' Hara 



PART 1 



How IT Began 



By Whom and Why a Momentous 
Mission was Conceived 



Convoy Crossed the Atlantic 

IN Worst Tempest During 

World War 



W^reck of the Otranto 

Only Ship Lost in 

War Because 

OF Storm 



CHAPTER I 



Birth of a Big Idea 



Broad Visioned Beaverbrook Devised a way to Nullify the Effect of 
German Propaganda and England Created a Ministry of Infor- 
mation with Lord Beaverbrook at its Head — Leading American 
Newspaper and Magazine Editors or Publishers, asked by 
English Ministry to Cross Seas and See with Their Own Eyes 
what World War was Like and What Great Britain's Part in 
It Had Been. 

|N reciting such a journey as is herein 
described naturally the first question 
asked is, " What was its inception? " 
11 In the winter of 1917-1918, J:ngland 
was thrown into a fervid frenzy at re- 
ports that (jerniany had assiduously 

and insidiously circulated malevolent 

Anti-Hritish projoaganda throughout America. So general 
were these broadcasted, and so accredited, that Parlia- 
ment arose to the necessity of a searching investigation 
of the entire question with a view of offsetting, if not 
entirely undoing, the evil effects of this sinister propa- 
ganda. Any inquiry, it was agreed, should be thorough, 
exhaustive, intelligent and efficient, if a helpful solution 
of the perplexing problem was to spring from it. 
That false and damaging reports were being disseminat- 
ed through the medium of American newspapers and 
magazines was firmly fixed in the minds of English 
War and legislative leaders, who apparently believed 
that if important American newspapers were not 




World War actually owned by Germany, many of them were sub- 
Ax Its sidized by junkerdom. Heated discussions followed in 
Climax *^^ House of Lords. Lord Beaverbrook, himself owner of 
g a great London newspaper, The Express, eloquently 
^' combatted the assumption that American newspaper 
men were corrupt or venal or Prussianized. Originally 
a lawyer by profession, then a banker, and a keen 
and able observer of social life and public affairs in 
America, while living in his earlier days in Canada, which 
he quit for the land of his adoption eight years before, 
it was not egotism for him, he believed, to say he was 
fully qualified to judge of the tendencies, aspirations 
and aims of American newspaper publishers. 
Reports of a Prussianized x'Vmerican press were not 
only maliciously untrue, but manifestly absurd. 
America had between 8,000 and 10,000 daily newspapers, 
to say nothing of vastly outnumbering weeklies and 
monthlies. To acquire these would mean billions of 
dollars. Side by side with allied troops, American boys 
were fighting, and it would have been unthinkable 
treason for American newspapers even to give an 
appearance of deserting their government at such a 
crisis. Nor would a public so outraged stand for such 
newspaper conduct. Unmistakably demands in such 
conditions would be made for government confiscation 
or suppression. 

As shedding light upon England's concern over what 
she believed were Germany's activities and attitude in 
America it is necessary to call attention to what was 
then going on in Mexico and between Mexico and Ger- 
many, for England, innocently, no doubt, had con- 
founded the United States with Mexico. 
For more than three years Mexico had been in constant 
revolutionary turmoil. In every way our neighboring 
republic had sought to draw us into the vortex of the 
— 2 — 



maelstrom which her intrigues, bandit uprisings and World War 
imbroghos had made. Germany was broadcasting deadly At Its 
propaganda in Mexico and seeking to incite Mexican (^Ljjyj^x 
hatred of us because we had aligned ourselves on the ^ 
side of the Allies. Before the war, both Germany and ' 
England had enjoyed far better trade relations with 
Mexico than had the United States. Her dream of world 
conquest once realized, Germany aspired to command 
Mexican resources and trade. 

From the lips of an eminent American physician who 
served our government in Mexico in a secret capacity 
for more than three years during and immediately fol- 
lowing the World War, I learned that in Mexican oil 
fields German agents were extremely active. Posters 
calling upon Mexicans to burn American wells were 
posted throughout the oil regions, but promptly pulled 
down by Americans. In some instances the torch was 
actually applied with disastrous results. This was but 
one of the many forms of pernicious activity by Ger- 
mans or German sympathizers. American citizens in 
Mexico besought President Wilson to intervene. The 
President's reply was that he was pursuing a policy of 
" watcMul waiting." 

Former President Roosevelt, with all the vigor and 
vehemence of his aggressive nature, denounced his suc- 
cessor as " too proud to fight," declaring that were he in 
Presidential office he would follow Villa and his bloody 
bandits to their mountain fastnesses, capture them and 
settle details afterwards as to the right thing to do. 
^ Notwithstanding Colonel Roosevelt's hostile attitude, 
he seemed personally more popular with the masses in 
Mexico than President Wilson. Then, as always, bull 
fighting was the national sport in Mexico. At such 
events, as well as in theaters and wherever else the 
public congregated, the name of Wilson was coldly 
— 3 — 



World War received, while that of Roosevelt evoked huzzas loud 
At Its *^nd long. 

Climax This seeming digression is made to explain how Great 
Britain had mixed ^Mexico up with the United States 
in taking for granted that Germany was making friends 
with American newspapers and American people. 
So convincing were arguments of Lord Beaverbrook a 
committee appointed to find an escape from the dilem- 
ma was told l)y him that the only way was to create a 
bureau or ministry of information which would send a 
commission to America to select a delegation of puK-: 
lishers or editors of leading magazines and newspapers 
who, as guests of the British Government, would cross 
the ocean and see for themselves what Great Britain had 
done and was doing, what her part in the World War was, 
had been, and nuist be. 

Because of his Canadian antecedents, Lord Beaver- 
brook had been appointed by the British government 
historian of Canada's part in the World War and official 
photographer at battle fronts for Great Britain. For 
more than three years in this dual capacity he had 
shared, with the infantry, the perils and hardships of 
war, and so vigorously and zealously had he prosecuted 
this work that his health broke under its privations and 
hardships &^ s^^ 

In accordance with Lord Beaverbrook's recommenda- 
tion a ]Ministry of Information was promptly created. 
This ministry was somewhat similar to certain divisions 
of our Department of the Interior. Beaverbrook was 
chosen as its head. 

Because ill health would not permit him to continue 
such extraordinary efi'orts as he had put forth at the 
front. Lord Beaverbrook decided to accept the great 
honor and to choose as an assistant an able and energetic 
young man upon whose shoulders should fall the bur- 
— 4 — 



dens of office. Looming large in the public eye at the World War 
time, on account of his civic activities in London, was At Its 
Major Evelyn Wrench, having just organized the popu- Climax 
lar English -Speaking Union and placed Mr Arthur J- ^ 
Balfour at its head. Also his record for valor and achieve- ' 
ment at the fighting front was widely known and uni- 
versally commended. Lord Beaverbrook accordingly 
drafted Major Wrench, promptly placed him in full 
charge of the Ministry of Information, himself remain- 
ing in the background wholly in an advisory capacity. 
At once the task of organization was energetically 
begun. Early in 1918 a commission of five members was 
sent to New York city to open offices, where a large 
force of secretaries and clerks worked diligently for six 
or eight months. 

Sir Geoffrey Butler, brother of the former Governor- 
General of India, headed the commission; Louis Tracy, 
novelist, who had recently' put out his thrilling novel, 
" On the Wings of the Morning, " was a second member; 
a distinguished officer. Commander Belt, who had been 
wounded while with General Allenby in Asia Minor and 
awaited a return to health, was a third; Major Lancaster, 
member of The London Times organization and Vis- 
count Northcliffe's legal adviser, who, in that office 
served all of the Viscount's vast newspaper interests, 
was fourth, and Henry Goode of New York city, an 
x\merican, was the fifth. 

After three months of careful and scrutinizing investi- 
gation, the following party was chosen by the Com- 
mission: Edward W. Bok of the Ladies' Home Journal; 
Duncan Clark, Chicago Evening Post; Alfred Holman, 
San Francisco Argonaut; Dr. Charles R. L. VanHise, 
President of the Wisconsin University; F. W. Kellogg, 
San Francisco, Cal.; L. W. Nieman, Milwaukee Jour- 
nal; R. T. Oulihan, New York Times; Ellery Sedgwick, 



World War Atlantic Monthly; Dr. Albert Shaw, Review of Re- 
x\t Its views; James N. Thompson, New Orleans Item; C. H. 
Climax Towne, INIcClure's Magazine, Dr. E. J. Wheeler, 
Everybody's. 



&•» 




Rt. Hon. Lord Bearerbrook 



— 6 — 



CHAPTER II 



Newspaper Men Take Up the Torch 
Thrown Down by Magazine Brethren 

Go Over to End War and Finish the Job Their Predecessors Were 
Impotent to Do — Refused to Go if Bound by Any Understanding 
Except an Open Mind Which Should Tell of Things as They 
Saw Them — England Said She Would Lay Her Cards Upon 
the Table Face Up. 

AGAZINE MEN, constituting group 
one, who had gone over in late June, 
having failed by early September to end 
war, twelve news})aper publishers were 
drafted as group number two. Insofar 
as most of us were concerned it was a 
hurried and an unexpected S. O. S. In 
the writer's case his mind was made up only forty hours 
prior to the time of sailing. It was too late to go to 
Washington for passports, but Secretary of State Lans- 
ing generously stepped into the breach and designated 
a fedei'al officer in New York City who pi'ovided the 
necessary credentials. The ever present difficulty then 
was that America and the Allies had commandeered 
the whole Atlantic ocean and held that no one had the 
right to cross it unless to fight. War, or service therefor, 
were the only grounds upon which passports were 
issued &^ 5o» 

Few in our party had the faintest conception of what was 

expected of them until they arrived at New York. 

— 7 — 




World War Unquestionably the most impelling reason for accepting 

At Its invitations was that many had sons in action overseas 

Cli]m\x ^^^ were ready and willing to make any sacrifice for an 

§ opportunity to meet them. 

• It should be emphasized in connection with choosings 
for this most important mission that no one was named 
for his beauty or his brains. Few, perhaps, would have 
been able to qualify upon those grounds. England went 
about the task in her usual cold, calculating, business 
way. 

Each newspaper was employing as war corres- 
pondents a staff of able commenters and illustrious 
reporters capable of wielding more forceful, trenchant or 
facile pens than any one of our party. England's wish 
was rather to reach the man in control of newspaper 
policies and destinies, and Viscount Northcliffe and Lord 
Beaverbrook, wise in their business of newspaper- 
making, told the powers that be that that man was the 
publisher s^ s^ 

Twenty-thousand four-hundred and thirty-one news- 
papers are printed in the United States with an aggre- 
gate circulation of fifteen and a half billion copies a 
year. From out this vast number Twelve Newspapers 
icere chosen — one from every seventeen hundred and 
sixty newspapers — which tells the story of the high 
compliment conferred by Great Britain in selecting our 
Editorial party and stresses her belief that she had 
selected newspapers of the greatest influence and pres- 
tige in their respective localities. It will be seen on a 
close study of the map of the United States that in the 
selection made every division of the country was repre- 
sented — the Pacific Coast, the Rocky Mountain Region, 
the Middle West, the South and the Middle East and 
the East. 
In the choice of newspapers high honor and esteem was 



intended, the men selected as representatives being World War 
merely coincidental. At Its 

At Sherry's famous restaurant, whither we were directed Climax 
to go by England's Ministry Commission, we found in ^ 
waiting a dinner at which Sir Geoffrey Butler was toast- 
master. Without entering into details, Sir Geoffrey said 
his government wished us to cross the ocean and see for 
ourselves, first hand, what was happening over there 
and how much of a part Great Britain was taking in 
it all. 

One of our members opened the discussion by saymg 
apologetically that there were many things in our school 
books which obviously perverted history and was unfair 
and derogatory to England and he contended that all 
such false and damaging teachings should be expurgated 
from text books. 

The member from Oregon, Mr. Piper, was next speaker. 
So great a period had elapsed since his school days, he 
declared he could not recall just what our text books 
did contain. Wliatever their content, he was decidedly 
and unequivocally opposed to delving into such subjects 
or sitting in judgment upon them. Traveling farthest of 
anyone to be present, he asserted that if a revision of 
American text books or commitment to any course of 
conduct was the purpose of the trip, he must respect- 
fully decline to go. He would prefer to take the first 
train back home. 

After others had spoken like sentiments, Sir Geoffrey 
Butler, for the Commissioners, said he was greatly 
pleased with the frankness of the newspaper men. 
England would be deeply grateful if the publishers 
became her guests and would lay all her cards on the 
table face up, exacting no promises whatsoever. He 
told the publishers they would be free to return home 
and say whatever they pleased, if only they consented 
— 9 — 



World War to make the trip. While over there letters or messages 

At Its must pass through censor's hands, all such documents 

Climax would be submitted by Ministry of Information officers, 

^ so that Sir Geoffrey felt the liberty of the press would 

^ not be materially abridged. 

With this satisfactory explanation the entire party 
agreed to sail next day. 

Next me sat Louis Tracy, the novelist. Noticing I wore 
a service button, he congratulated me upon going across 
with a prospect of meeting my son, and then remarked, 
with a deep touch of sadness in his voice, that his own 
son had made the supreme sacrifice. 
" Killed in action? " I inquired. 

" Yes, thank God, a captain leading his men; just as I 
wished him to die and as I know he would have pre- 
ferred to die. Noble boy." 

Before we arose from our delightful meal, Sir Geoffrey told 
us that the mystery and secrecy attending all sailings 
must be observed, but he felt safe in saying our ship 
was to be a giant greyhound of such high speed that 
submarine danger would be reduced to a minimum, if 
not wholly eliminated. We were told to report at a 
certain pier next day, at an appointed hour, and ask for 
a ship known to us only by number. 
With mixed anticipations and forebodings over our 
embarkation on the morrow, our enjoyable dinner came 
to an end. 

Those who went were: Franklin Potts Glass, of The 
Birmingham, Ala. News; Edward W. Barrett, Birming- 
ham Age-Herald; Edward H. Butler, Buffalo Evening 
News; Herschel V. Jones, Minneapolis Journal; Frank 
Richardson Kent, Baltimore Sun; A. M. McKay, Salt 
Lake Tribune; Edgar Bramwell Piper, The Oregonian, 
Portland, Ore. ; Edward Lansing Ray, St. Louis Globe- 
Democrat; Col. Charles A. Rook, Pittsburgh Dispatch; 
— 10 — 



Lafayette Young, Jr., Des Moines Capitol, Des Moines; World War 
W. A. Paterson, Western Newspaper Union, Chicago At Its 
and New York, and Edward H. O'Hara, The Syracuse Climax 
Herald &9^ &i^ ^ 



— 11 — 




3s p< .K ^ 



• ~ c^ J & 



~ o - o •. 












CHAin^ER III 



A Ship of Death 




A Hideous Voyage — Spanish Influenza and Pneumonia take 
Frightful Toll — Worst Storm in Fifty Years Resulting in Loss 
of One Transport and Many Lives. 

C)()N following dinner at Sherry's 
found our Editorial voyagers at pier 
59 North river. Ship number 718, for 
which we were told to ask, proved to be 
not the promised Cedric, a modern 
floating palace, but a poky, stuffy 
8,000 ton troopship, the Orontes. From 
mysterious whisperings among her crew, it quickly 
leaked out that Spanish influenza had been discovered 
aboard before reaching Boston one week earlier, at 
which port twenty cases were taken off. Customs officers, 
health officers and our British hosts were sunniioned 
for conference, and twice we threatened to quit the ship. 
On repeated assurances that all reports were grossly 
exaggerated, that there had been thorough fumigation 
and disinfection, an officious federal representative, 
wiiose word was law (martial law at least) imperiously 
waved us away, and after twenty-four hours of almost 
constant wrangling we put out to sea. Then we learned 
it was the first voyage of the Orontes to America. 
Hitherto she, British owned, had plied between Australia 
and Great Britain bearing English colonial troops to 
war. England had never permitted her to carry more 
than 750 soldiers, as the ship's maximum capacity was 
not more than nine hundred passengers. In America's 
— 13 — 



World War mad rush to get men over 1834 troops, including 500 

At Its negroes, had been herded into cramped quarters. 

Clim\x ^^^ ^^^* ^^ ^^^ ^^^ reached our convoy, which apparently 

J had l)een lying in wait for us. There were eleven camou- 

* flaged vessels, comprising a fleet of twelve, carrying 

28,000 troops and protected In* a destroyer, a cruiser 

and a giant man-o'-war — fifteen ships in all. Seaplanes 

and dirigible balloons hovered above or sailed about us. 

With these and the mystifying, tortuous, shuttlecock 

movements of our convoy, we got our first big thrill and 

simultaneouslv we realized we had indeed entered upon 

A GREAT ADVEXTURE. 

After a few hours, these *' eyes of the sea," as hydro- 
planes were known, withdrew their protecting wings, 
their hum and roar grew fainter and fainter until 
finally they died away in the shoreward distance. A 
sense of great depression came over us as we realized 
wewerealone with our fate. As told in the rhymes of the 
Ancient ^lariner we were: 

Alone, alone, all, all alone. 
Alone on the wide, wide sea. 

Hydroplanes had been scanning the seas for submarines 
just as a kingfisher searches its prey. 
Almost from the outset we encountered stormy weather. 
The third day out our first tragedy of the sea happened 
when a Presbyterian clergyman, a ]Mr. Croucher, old 
and diabetic, traveling from his temporary charge in 
Vancouver, British Columbia, to his native Scotland to 
die among relatives and amid scenes of his childhood, 
succumbed to pneumonia and was Inu'ied at sea. Then 
we learned that in the twenty-four hours we lay along- 
side dock in New York, forty cases of Spanish influenza 
had developed, many were secretly taken ashore, and 
that there were then more than one hundred cases on 
— U — 



I 



board. Next day there were two burials at sea, next World War 
three and next five. Our negro troops became wildly At Its 
exercised, threatened to nuitiny and had to be put under Climax 
martial restraint. 

There were no more daylight burials, bodies thereafter 
being cast into the sea secretly at night. 
Against the wishes of those in charge Mr. Piper and this 
writer attended the clergyman's biu'ial. We thought of 
the rude awakening in store for his waiting relatives in 
Scotland when his failure to arrive was explained. 
At 6:. '30 A. INI. of the second day thereafter, our whole 
Editorial party arose to participate in the burial of three 
soldiers. It was decided to change the hour of the cere- 
mony to 10:30. The trii)le burial proved to be inexpress- 
ibly sad and depressing in the midst of a cold, driving 
rain and an angry sea. A Methodist chaplain connected 
with Y. M. C. A., officiated. The ship's little band of 
civilian passengers and a number of soldiers stood by 
with bared heads throughout the brief exercises. Soldiers 
in charge of the military burial stood at sides of grooved 
plank affairs in which the bodies rested. Over the tops 
of these rude catafalques were fastened American flags. 
The bodies were in sacks with heavy pieces of iron rails 
tied at the feet. Ceremonies over, soldiers raised the head 
of each chute to a proper angle until bodies slipped from 
under the flag into the deep. The flags remained with 
the frame. There was many a wet eye among the sorrow- 
ful gathering, whose chief distress was that a greater and 
worthier tribute of respect could not be paid these 
glorious dead. 

A Danish sea-captain, called to Washington on a secret 
mission, having also served Great Britain, showed little 
concern over the storm, declaring it would soon blow 
itself. But he reckoned without his host, as it did not 
abate one jot or iota. He further enlightened us with the 
— 15 — 



? 



World War story of how upon discovering the presence of a sub- 
Ax Its marine, cruiser and destroyer, which accompany con- 
Clim\x '^^y^' circle about and drop depth bombs and keep up 
constant firing until the submarine is hit or sunk. 
A bounty of twenty-five pounds sterling, we were in- 
formed, was paid the person discovering a submarine, 
and the ship sinking one received two thousand five 
hundred pounds, the money being distributed among 
crew members. 

In earlier days many of our newspaper tribe were penny- 
a-liners, or space writers, to whom a bonus of twenty- 
five pounds would loom big. While editors spent much 
time keeping a sharp lookout for submarines they 
inwardly prayed they would n't see one — their avari- 
cious instincts for once having deserted them. 
Early one morning there was great commotion when 
our destroyer laid down a smoke barrage. It was a tense 
moment. The destroyer and submarine chasers started 
after something. When they came upon it, it turned 
out to be a big piece of old wreckage. 
In the thirty-six hours which the eighty -mile gale had 
raged two of the crew had been lost overboard. The 
purser was rolled along the deck by waves shipped and 
his head so badly cut, six stitches were taken. It was a 
miracle he was not swept overboard. One seaman broke 
his leg; another pitched down a hatchway and broke four 
ribs s^ &^ 

Pneumonia, following influenza, increased alarmingly. 
Two hospitals below decks were jammed full of patients, 
and windows were torn out of smoking and lounging 
room on the hurricane deck, converting the space into 
another hospital where fifty pneumonia patients were 
placed. All medicines were quickly exhausted. There 
were no tubes of oxygen, so useful in the last stages of 
pneumonia, but had there been they would have helped 
— 16 — 



Climax 



little with only two physicians and no nurses to care World War 
for the sick. A Y. man on the way to Paris did wonderful At Its 
work 5^ &^ 

To add to the other horrors of this SHIP OF DEATH, 
four days off Liverpool, the worst storm in forty-five 
years broke. First afternoon a seaman at work on the 
hurricane deck getting hawsers in shape so that life 
boats might be lowered was swept overboard and dis- 
appeared in the mighty combers. 

Next morning a watch went up to the crow's nest, or 
lookout, to relieve the night boy. Door was open, but 
boy was gone, having during the night been blown out 
into the sea. Next day the storm reached the zenith of 
its fury, wind and wave having grown wilder and 
mightier until in its awful power and action the ocean 
became majestic, enthralling. A whirling, typhonic gale 
sprang up suddenly in the midst of it all, and when it 
had gone we were entirely alone, our convoy and all our 
cherished protectors having been separated from us to 
be seen no more. 

That afternoon a mountain of water came over the 
ship's larboard side. From prow to stern our stumbling 
but gallant little craft trembled under the awful 
impact &^ &^ 

Windows and doors were riven. Furniture and men in 
the upper deck lounge were swept across the room in 
wild confusion. Passengers were bruised, shocked and 
wrenched. Mighty seas, thus shipped, swirled down 
stairs like cataracts, carrying everything before them. 
Consternation ensued. Men in the lower decks believed 
the boat doomed, but pumps were put to work and 
comparative calm was finally restored. Kitchen fires 
had been put out, and it was found impossible to brew 
tea or coffee or to cook food. For three days we were 
forced to live on crackers and cheese with ginger beer 
— 17 — 



» 



World War for a drink. So badly did our boat toss and roll wo could 
At Its take our boverai^o only from the bottle. 
Clim\x ^^^i^^'i ^^'^ reached Liverpool, fifty-six pneumonia pa- 
tients, laboriously gasping- for breath from want of 
proper facilities for treatment, and the rolling about 
on smoking room floors, were carried on stretchers to 
the city hospitals where, doubtless, forty or forty-hve 
of them died later. It was learned that we had had 500 
cases of influenza, 130 cases of pneumonia. There had 
been 38 burials at sea. Two negroes were found hidden 
under the stairs on the boat's deck, where they had 
gone in their fright or delirium. They had been dead for 
many days, l^ats had gnawed the arm of one of them. 
The last three nights, when it seemed as if we cer- 
tainly nuist sink, our Editorial band delegated two young 
members to keep vigil and arouse our party if necessary 
to leave the ship. It i>robably would have been useless 
to (|uit the ship in the circumstances since no life-boat 
could live in such a sea. AVe were to stand by and help 
each other if anvthing happened. FOR OXc'E, IF UK 
WEXr TO THE BOTTOM, WE DESIRED TO GO 
DOUX AS AX I XI TED PRESS. 
Second night before landing, Edgar Bramwell Piper 
and I sat discussing our plight and the seeming cer- 
tainty that our sliip could not live through the a^^•ful 
storm. To my comment that if first permitted to see 
my son Cicorge, who was fighting at the front, I l)elieved 
I \1 be reconciled to go. Piper brought his fist liowu 
upon the table with a resounding thwack and said: 
** O'llara, your son is in the wicked machine-gun service 
ami has been over the top many times. Mine is an 
aviator. Even now they are taking a thousand chances 
to our one. There are a thousand reasons why we should 
take a chance to one that they should. You and I are 
going down the western slope of life while they are in 
— 18 — 



i 



the joyful period of their young manhood. I '11 be World War 
damned if I 'ni going to he a cringing coward. Let 's go At Its 
to bed! " Climax 

To bed we went and slept. We were among the few who 
did, as nearly all believed we would never see the dawn 
of another day. 

As we entered the Mersey, a connnittee of our party 
went to the ship's bridge and presented the captain with 
a purse of $5'20, a token of appreciation for his faithful 
vigil and great ability as a navigator. In the five days 
before Liverpool was reached he had been off the bridge 
but four hoins and was ke{)t awake with j)ots of strong 
coffee brought to him at frecjuent intervals. 
Arriving in Liverpool, our chairman, Frank P. (ilass, 
himself a pillar of the Presbyterian church in his home 
tow^n, suggested that next day we search out some quiet 
chapel in I^ondon and with special prayer give thanks 
to the Almighty for our deliverance from the grave in 
the deep. Next day and other days came and went, but 
thanksgiving services were not held. It was evidently a 
case of '' when the devil was ill, the devil a saint would 
be, when the devil was well, the devil a saint was he." 
But our harrowing trip was not without its great 
compensations. Through the courtesy of Admiral Sims 
we sent to President Wilson a code message giving a 
detailed ixccount of the overcrowding of our boat, sick- 
ness, deaths, absence of medicines, lack of doctors and 
nurses, telling him of our misgivings before sailing and 
all other details. We received no reply, expected none, 
but at once overcrowding ceased and all convoys were 
provided every precaution to check the spread of influ- 
enza or other infectious or contagious diseases. 



19 



<'iiAi»ri<:R IV 



Tragedy of the Sea 



The wreck nf llic Olranio irlicii lininnicd hjj a Si.iirr 'rran.sporl. The 
Kd.slivilr l/teulenanl FranriK Worlhivulon (.raven (Umvmand- 
ituj the I'jtujli.ih Deslroyer Moursey I initiorlalized //im.wlf as a 
Hero Otilji lo itieel a Tr(u/i<-, l*alhelle Fate After World War 
handed. 




IO(;iNNIN(i our voyji^v ;,l New York, 
iii.ilcdicl ions, iriiprcc.il ions ;im<1 iiria- 
^IlKMiins were lic.-ipcd Iii^li upon I lie 
iiiili.ippy licjuls of our iiiviliri^ coim- 
iiiissioiKMS IxM'.'iiisc of llicir hroUcii 
lo pill IIS oil l)o;i,r<l n l)i<', swill 
we round wImmi joining 
our coiivo^' oi" I r;iiis|)orls llinl we luid Ix'cii plnccd upon 
lli<> Oronlcs, ji, niiscnibic lilllc cr.'iri, iiislnid of JM-in^ 
honored vvilli (|u;irl('rs on our Heel's H.-i^siiip Hie 
Oininlo. DisjippoinI nicnl and dismay lia,d, liowcvcr, 
IxMMi somcwlial inollilicd by one of our Mdilorial parly 
wlio vigorously denounced us as arraiil cowards, wholly 
iinworlhy and iinapprccialivc, since we seemed loo 
proud lo ^o under circumslances and environmenl 
riilly as ^ood as I hose oF our sons who had pre- 
ceded us. 

Mulinous 111 leraiices ceased in Ihe face ol' so concilialory 
and convincin<i,' an ar^umenl. 1 1 was riol for lon^', how- 
ever, ('omplainls and mis^ivin^s arose afresh when in 
mid-ocean we seriously discussed Ihe feasihilily and 
jiislice of hein^- Iraiisferred from our ship lo Ihe Olranio. 
— ^21 — 



f 



WoKLD AVak So wild was the ocean at the time of the proposed traiis- 
At Its ^^^' that our captain dechired lie could listen to no such 
Clim\x f<-^<^^Ui<^i'<^b' suggestion. 

Early Sunday, October t>, otf northeastern Ireland, from 
out moimtainous waves, there arose two small objtvts. 
They resembled old-fashioned wooden cradles, such as 
those in which older members of our party had no doubt 
been rocked in babyhood. There was this dit^'erence, 
however, no human hand was ever powerful enough to 
agitate cradles as old ocean in an angry mood tossed 
and shook and rolled our steamships. 
Coming nearer, the objects proved to be two British 
destroyers. One of them wig-wagged this query : " We 've 
betm wirelessed that a boat in about this latitude and 
longitude is in distress. Are you that boat? " 
Answering ** No." word was added that the Otranto, 
fully equipped with wireless, had doubtless sent out the 
S. O. S. In less time than it takes to tell, our interrog- 
ators disappeared to the north in foaming seas and we 
continued our desperate fight to reach Liverpool. 
For two days we were butfeted like cockle-shells until 
Liverpool's domes atui steeples ln"ightened our eyes and 
gladdened our hearts. Keacliing dock, a number of our 
ships, upon which we had not feasted our eyes for four 
days, lay at anchor. There were mysterious rumors of a 
mishap to one member of our convoy otf tlie nortli 
coast of Ireland, but not until our arrival next day in 
London did we learn the bitter truth. Admiral Sims 
exacted of us a promise not to divulge the story of the 
calamity until his otHce had an opportunity to investi- 
gate fully and obtain all the facts. And the sacredness of 
that promise was observed until Admiral Sims released 
us from our pledges. 

Beyond the appalling report that an American trans- 
port had been sunk in a collision and several hundred 



$ 



Aniorican tr()o])s wont down with it, nows came out only World War 
piocomonl. Altliouiiii LdiuIoh iiows])npers were in full At Its 
p()ssossit)n of tlio fads wliicli thov withliold l)ec'ause a r^mrAY 

111 I 1 ' I -> 1' <• ^ LIMAX 

law. based u[)()n nocossity and known as [\\v Satety ot 
tilt' Uealni Act,ft)rbade publication, several days elapsed 
before our lulitorial party was ]>ernn'tted to print 
details of the horror. For four days a continual lenipest 
hat! ra^ed. Old sea-ilogs deelared it the worst storm in 
forly-tive years. Our convoy of fifteen shij)s was blown 
apart and only the Kashmir and the Otranto had kej)! 
in sight of each other. 15etween (ilasgow, Scotland, and 
Belfast, Ireland, the two were running side by side, the 
Otranto on the Scottish side and tlie Kashmir on the 
Irish side of the channel. The captain of the Otranto 
l)elieved all boats of our convoy were destined for 
Liverpool. The Kashmir was the one exce[)tiou and it 
turned to go into (dasgow. With the mighty force of 
the hurricane back of her, she rannned the Otranto 
amidsliip. When the ships pulled apart it was found 
impossible for either to turn around to help the other, 
and they realized they were badly rent and 
damaged .<^ .^^ 

The Otranto made for the Irish coast otf I5elfast, while 
the Kashmir put on all steam and continued toward 
Glasgow. The Captain of the Otranto attempted to 
beach her, but insteatl hit one of the rocky precipices 
that skirt the shores of northern Ireland, and the ship 
was })ounding herself to pieces when the two English 
destroyers came to her aid. 

Lieutenant Francis Worthington Craven, commanding 
the destroyer Moursey, made a frantic attempt at 
rescue, but the other destroyer's captain, evidently 
believing discretion the l)etter part of valor, refrained 
from standing l)y. Otranto's captain, knowing his ship 
was doomed, besought Lieutenant Craven not to come 
— 23 — 



\Vc>Ki.n AVak over, doclarinu- it meant certain suieide for himsolf ami 
At lis In^^ t"l•t^^v. 
/> **A\oll. it must bo suiciilo thou." was liis reply, "for 

J, we *re eomiug over! " 

^ Then t\>lK>wed most awful ami lieartremliuii' seeuos. 
riuehed between sinking- Otranto ami roeky shore- 
Lieutenant Craven's ship was torn and wrenched while 
men tinnu" then\selves from the dtvk of the (^tranto to 
that oi the ilestroyer. Misealeulating, in their frenzy, 
many fell into the sea. others were crushed to death 
between tossing ships, wiiile others in jumping to the 
Otranto's deck sustained broken legs, arms or ribs or 
were otherwise injured. 

Tlu-ee trips were made by the heroic Craven, landing 
alternately his injured, dying or dead cargi> at Isley 
near Cdasgow or at a point opposite Belfast. Ireland. 
Kacli time Otranto's captain protested it was down- 
right madness, only to receive from Lieutenant Craven, 
who himself was badly hurt, the same cool, tirm and 
unvarying reply that so long as his own boat could be 
kept atloat or the Otranli^ remained above water, he 
woidd keep coming. 

Just as he was leaving the Belfast pier for a fourth trip. 
Lieutenant Craven saw the Otranto make one frightful 
plunge and sink into the sea. And the mighty breakers 
rolled on in all their anger over the spot where the ill- 
starred Otranto IkuI madly tossed and struggled a few 
moments before. 

It was providential tliat Lieutenant Craven had pro- 
ceeiied no further in his fourth errand oi mercy, as in 
making for Belfast w ith all possible speed he was barely 
able ti> reach there. Kxperts declared that had he con- 
tinued on into open ocean waters, his vessel could 
never have lived, so badly was she damaged. AVhile 
Lieutenant (^-aven's ship went into liry dock for repair 



(' 1.1 MAX 



at Belfast, he enterod a hospital wIkm-c his injuries World War 
received attention and where, six weeks later, we found ^Vt Its 
him, with many others whom he had rescued, and learned 
from his own li[)s this story. ,, 

Before i^'oing' to Ireland our party had visited Scotland. * 
There in a shi[)-l)uildini;' plant on the river Clyde, near 
(ilasgow, we saw the Kaslunir, her prow laid wide oi)en 
for twenty feet, the rent exlendiuii,' from water line to 
deck, and we marvelled how she had managed to make 
her way to (ilasgow in such a seriously crippled con- 
dition throui^h foamini;' seas. 

It was finally announced oHicially that four hundred 
and thirty-one were missiui;' and live hundred ninety 
rescued, of whom one hundred later died, as the awful 
toll taken by the disaster. It was related to us as a fact 
that hatl the Otranto been able to reach a point a thou- 
sand feet further, either up or down the coast, she 
would have landed upon sandy beach and attained 
safety instead of death ui)on the rocks. 
Hefore leaving- home it had been my hope that I should 
be able to visit and drop a tear, a flower and a ])rayer 
upon the grave of Lieut. l*hili]) K. Lighlhall, brave and 
beloved son of Syracuse, who lost his life when the Tus- 
cania went ilown off the Island of I slay. The body was 
washed ashore and buried with many oilier victims in 
a little cemetery in this rugged promontory. Since going 
under government management, however, railroad 
schedules had been greatly disturbed, and a tri[) from 
(dasgow to Islay and return was now a matter of four 
days. As 1 could not leave my party for more than a. 
day, 1 regretfully abandoned the idea. 
It was my great good fortune, however, to meet at the 
Lord Provost's dinner in (dasgow, a Rev. jVIr. (^lark, 
in charge of one of the churches on the island. lie was 
there at the time of the wreck of the Tuscania and said 
— 25 — 



I 



NVoKLD War he knew all about the burials and described to me the 

At Its location of Lieutenant Lighthall's grave. The minister said 

Clim\x ^^^ ^^*^^ engaged in a scheme to erect an appropriate 

monument to the Tuscania victims which would also 

include those of the Otranto. 

Similar to the great sorrow attending the sinking of the 
Otranto was the pathos which the hero of it encountered 
in the last days of his life. 

One year after Armistice an international news writer, 
in London for one of the big American syndicates, was 
requested by a member of our Editorial group to look 
up Lieutenant C^raven. Word came back that in (ireat 
Britain's disarmament ])lan he had been discharged 
from service and, with wife and children to support, 
found himself in straightened circumstances. Six of our 
party most readily reached were appealed to and a 
sizable purse was raised and sent. A letter of gratitude 
came back. One member of our party, having learned 
what had been ilone, insisted on making a contribution. 
It, as a second installment, was sent to Lieutenant 
Craven, or rather, to our representative in London. 
Before this second contribution reached him the Asso- 
ciated Press bore news that two days after Lieutenant 
Craven had joined the Black and Tans as a district 
inspector, lie was shot to death at Ballinalee, L-eland, 
in a Sinn Fein uprising. Unable to tind other employ- 
ment to feed his family, he had volunteered into the 
British constabulary. 

Crowning a rocky promotory that juts out into the sea 
at a point near Glasgow is the rude, picturesque little 
settlement of Islay. Here, as already described, were 
buried bodies of our American boys as they drifted 
ashore after a (icrman submarine had torpedoed the 
Tuscania soon following America's entrance into the 
World War. 

— ^21? — 



It \s'as a strange coincidence that the Tnscania, the only World War 
American trooi)ship submarined during the war, and At Its 
the Otranto, the only American troopshi[) lost because Clu^ax 
of a storm, met tlieir fates at almost an identical point ^ 
in the Irish Channel between Glasgow and Belfast. * 
At Islay, too, are, or rather were, as nearly all have been 
brought back to iVmerica, buried many bodies washed 
ashore from the Otranto. At the dinner in (ilasgow 
where we met the Rev. Mr. Clark, a resident of Islay 
who officiated at most of the burials, and an American 
consul at that place, it was understood by our party 
that tliese two gentlemen were authorized to erectat Islay 
a suitably engraved tablet of remenil)rance to the vic- 
tims of Tnscania and Otranto. It was reported at an 
annual reunion dinner of our group at the Waldorf- 
Astoria, New York, in April of this year, that only a 
tentative order was given and that therefore nothing 
had come of the matter. Then it was resolved to revive 
the subject at once, to give honorable mention upon the 
tablet to Lieutenant Craven and also to ascertain why 
our federal government had not, in some form or other, 
taken cognizance of the Lieutenant's valorous deeds in 
saving the lives of hundreds of American soldiers at the 
risk of losing his own and the lives of his crew. 



27 



( HAPTER V 




Isolation Complete and Gloomy 

Pi(blu'hcrs Cut off from World News for Fourteen Dreary Days — 
Constitute Themselves a Board of Inquiry and Get Valuable 
Information Bearing Upon their Mission Abroad. 

OURTEEN long days entirely outside 
of world affairs was an experience 
hitherto unknown to a galaxy of news- 
paper publishers, wireless messages 
being only for our flagship — the 
Otranto Si>» &^ 

Occasionally a flag at half-mast on 

anollRM- ship of our convoy denoted a death aboard and 
was practically all the news we had of the flotilla of 
which we were a part. 

Liquor was not sold to soldiers, although there was a bar 
aboard, and civilians and some officers were permitted to 
buy. Each member of our party was provided by our 
P^nglish hosts with a quart of old brandy for prevention 
of sea sickness, but on the second day out we gave the 
entire allowance to the ship's surgeons to be used as 
medicine among our American troops suffering from 
influenza and pneumonia. 

The publishers as a distraction and to gain desired 
knowledge decided to turn themselves into a Board 
of Inquiry before which they would summon witnesses 
among the civilians on board who might enlighten 
them upon things pertinent to their trip. 
A Mr. Crooks of Liverpool thought L-eland incapable of 
self government. AYith a nuijority in the house, should 
— 29 — 



f 



World AVar they get home rule they would immediately erect a bar- 

At Its rier against England by a prohibitory tariti'. Lloyd George 

pTTAri^' ^^''^^' 1^^ said, bv all odds the strongest man in Britain, 

V^LIMAX . . , 1 • ■ • , . 11'' 

Asquith weak, pronnsmg many thmgs and donig 
nothing. ]Mr. Crooks had been to America purchasing 
for England material, mostly woods for airplanes. 
Next was a W. Davidson who, with his wife, seemed 
overjoyed at being homeward bound, notwithstanding 
the gloomy conditions on shipboard. ^Ir. and Mrs. 
Davidson were returning from Russia after a twenty 
years' residence, where the former had represented one 
of the biggest Bible publishing houses in the world, had 
accunndated a fortune and built one of the finest resi- 
dences in Western Russia. Then came war. Finally 
Russia collapsed, followed by Soviet misgovernment,of 
which little was then known outside of Russia, but of 
which the world has since acquired ample and Intter 
knowledge. Bolshevism sprang up, and ]Mr. Davidson 
resolved to Hy the country, (ilad to escape with their 
lives, Mr. and ^Nlrs. Davidson, after allowing their real 
estate to be confiscated, fied for Madivostock whence 
they were to ship to San Francisco, from which point 
they were to proceed home. Jewelry and negotiable 
securities were taken along, but money, bonds and other 
securities were left behind in banks. With their journey 
began terrible persecutions. At nearly every sizable 
trans-Siberian railway station they were seized, upon 
some pretext or other, and money was extorted. In 
many instances they had been cast into loathsome jails 
until they paid the demanded ransom. News of their 
coming preceded them and confederates intercepted 
them at the next station. Up to the time of leaving \ew 
York the couple had been eight months away from their 
Russian home. They had succeeded in secreting barely 
enough money to pay their way back to England. 
— ^0 — 



I 



Mr. and Mrs. Davidson said they believed eventually World War 
their beautiful home and real estate would be restored At Its 
to them, but declared they would n't return again Climax 
" for all Russia." 

On the first evening out of New York I met L. Bai-ring- 
ton Simeon, Lieutenant of the First Highland Light 
Infantry. The day before sailing I had chanced to meet 
him at the vise office in New York. Lieutenant Simeon 
was 30, of giant stature, nmch traveled and an intensely 
interesting chap. It was his twenty-sixth crossing. Three 
times he had rounded the world, had served (ireat Britain 
in India, organized the Mounted Police of Northwestern 
Canada, had been in the Friendly, Fiji and Samoan 
Islands in the South Seas in the interests of his govern- 
ment, had fought in Mesopotamia under (ieneral 
Allenby, where nine months before he w as shot through 
the lung by a Turkish sniper, and was sent to the Isle 
of Wight to recuperate. Then he was sent to America 
on a secret mission for the British government. It 
seemed to be his boast, however, that he was a born 
fighter and not a diplomat. He was eager to get back 
into the fray at the head of his regiment, but feared his 
government would not permit him to return. 
Turks, the Lieutenant told us, were the cleanest fighters 
in the world except when in combat with Americans, when 
they became demons incarnate because of religious 
fanaticism. Then nothing short of complete extermina- 
tion seemed to satisfy them, so diabolical were their 
methods 5«» 5o» 

An English mei-chant who asked us to be allowed to 
remain anonymous, returning from America where he 
had gone on a government errand, gave our Hoard the 
English side of the Irish question. England, he believed, 
would not consent to Irish separation and, without 
prejudice, it was his opinion it would be the worst thing 
— 31 — 



I 



World War that could happen to Ireland. In his judgment, Ireland 
At Its ^^'^'^'^ incapable of self-government. 
Clim\x ^^^ '^^^^ away the most intellectual man to come before 
our Board was F. ^Nlaginn of Warrington, England, who 
followed the Englishman and combated all his argu- 
ments. He was a mamifacturer of some sort and had 
been in America to buy American machinery. In order 
to obtain permission to come to America at that time. 
England exacted of all more than a business reason for 
leaving home, and accordingly he was appointed by 
England, on account of his literary ability, to look into 
school text books in use in American schools, colleges 
and universities. This gave color to the report which 
]Mr. Patterson of Chicago had brought up in his speech 
at Sherry's the night before we sailed — that England 
complained of our text books as containing things deroga- 
tory toiler. Mr. Maginn,in his otHcial capacity, had visit- 
ed Washington, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Chicago. 
But of this he would speak no further. 
Mr. Maginn had lived in England eighteen years and 
found Englishmen the best people on earth among whom 
to live. As an Irishman he owed allegiance to Ireland. 
He went over the high spots in Irish history for a hun- 
dred years; every act of home rule or land legislation 
was on the tip of his tongue. Ireland's cause was his 
cause, her people were his people and her welfare was 
his welfare and he nuist be with her forever, right or 
wrong. His business partner and all his relatives were 
in war before the draft and he coidd not find it in his 
heart to censure Ireland because she resisted conscrip- 
tion. Then he broke down and cried bitterly, declaring 
it was the regret of his life that Ireland could not see 
her way clear to be in the war just as she was before 
conscription. 

— 32 — 



PART II 

England 



A Day with King Cieorge, Queen 
Mary, Dowager Queen Alex- 
andra AND Princesses 
Mary and Louise 



Viscount Northcliffe a (Jracious 
and Generous Host 



Balfour and the English Speak- 
ing Union 

Visits to the Tower of London, 

St. Dunstan and The 

Times Plant 







^' . 



"i^*! 



CHAPl ER VI 




In Dear Ole Lunnon 

Cu'tting Viiih-r Wai/ in the First Tiiruti/-Four Iloiir.s- — Had Thci/ 
Waited I'litil Fidhf Prepared Allies Might Hare Won the War 
With Tanks — On the Contrary Germany Could Have Done the 
Same Thing, if They had had Enough Poison Gas on Hand 
When They First Began Hs Use. 

\T Ln'KKPOOL wo were met at pier 
by an able ami courteous conunittee, 
a deleoatiou of the British ^liuistry of 
luforniatiou, escorted to tlie Ailelphi, 
said to l>e (ireat Britain's l)esi hotel, if 
not the best in all Europe, where a real 

supper, a Turkish bath, luxurious 

rooms and a comfortable bed, in a measure at least, dis- 
pelled the horrors of our tempestuous journey and a 
wretched two weeks aboard the Orontes. 
The next day our hosts tot>k us aboard a special car 
bound for London. We did not realize then, but soon 
found out that om* privations and hardships, so far as 
courtesy, intelligent care and gracious and distinguished 
attention could amend, ended when we stepped otf 
deck at Liverpool. 

Arriving in London early in the afternoon, we found at 
the Savoy Hotel the Ministry of Liformation awaiting 
us with an excellent luncheon, after which we were 
assigned to the best suites in the hostelry, given the use 
of an innnense assembly room with anterooms and lob- 
bies and two secretaries and a number of typists to take 
dictation, write letters or telegrams or do any errands 
— 35 — 



AVorldAYar which we shoiiUi entrust to them. These were to be our 
At Its headquarters whenever in London during our stay in 
CLm\x Europe .<^.^ 

to Then, we were informed by our hosts, we shouhi be left 
* quite akme until next day to unpack, hxik after our 
hiundry or rest or in any other way exercise our own 
sweet will to our hearts' content. 

When we arose next morning we were told that Ms- 
count Xorthclitfe would call promptly at ten o'clock, 
and every one was conunanded to be punctual at head- 
quarters. On the stroke of the hour. Lord Xorthclitfe 
walked into our othces. His dash and strenuousness 
reminded me of former President Roosevelt in his 
earlier years. After a most cordial welcome he bade us 
lunch with him next day in The Times home in Printing 
House Square, warned us to zealously guard our health. 
as Spanish influenza had come to London, said he had 
directed a young woman, superintendent of his stenog- 
raphers and typists, to detail us all the secretaries we 
wished, to do our work. We were, if we preferred, to go 
to The Times othce or call upon it for anything needed. 
After a half hour's chat upon war topics, in which he 
imparted confidentially a vast amount of war news that 
could not then be printed, he withdrew. 
At eleven A. M. we were taken in automobiles to 
Cricklewood, where we were shown an innnense field 
of bombing tanks. We were given a ride over the nuiddy 
field in them, the different makes with their several 
points of advantages explained, all of which imparted a 
thrill and was extremely interesting. 
It was an open secret that a tactical blunder had been 
made by Allied forces in prenuiturely introducing tanks 
into the war. With the usual reserve and caution of the 
English, only a few were made when they were sent into 
action. Cierman ingenuity quickly saw their great pos- 
— 30 — 



? 



sibilities and ]iower and at once adopted them and was World War 

capable of making' I hem as rapidly, if not more rapidly. At Its 

than the Allies. Had Allies wailed until a sufHcient ^lj^ax 

number were made before putlin,<>' them in use, our host 

declared, war would have been won, as these wonderful 

inventions, he believed, would have gone through wicked 

barbed wire entanglements and the boasted impenetrable 

Ilindenburg line like a knife through cheese. W^e 

reminded our informant that had (icrmany been less 

hasty and better prepjired when she sprung the danni- 

able poison gas she could have ended the war. But she 

could not get enough of it before Allies resorted to it, 

besides quickly discovering the gas mask and putting 

it in use. 

A captain in charge of the field sought me out and said 

he was George Grossmith, that he had often been in 

Syracuse, and for several years had traveled with our 

own Edna May. He turned out to be the well-known 

English actor, son of the great actor of that name, who 

had given uj) his profession to do his bit in winning the 

war &^ *•► 



— 37 — 



CHAPTER VII 




Meeting England's Great Luminaries 

Viscount Northcliffe's Memorable Luncheon Punctuated with 
Brilliant Speeches — Magazine Men and Newspaper Publishers 
Called Together by Lord Northclijfe to Get Acquainted with 
Some of the Great Minds Active in World War Affairs. 

flSCOUNT NORTHCLIFFE stood in 
an anteroom of the big banquet hall 
of the historic Times building and 
shook hands with each guest, calling 
many by name, although he had seen 
us but once before. Then we were direct- 
ed to the cloak room and next to the 
dining hall. At the entrance to the latter was an 
easel upon which stood an immense diagram of the tables. 
My heart leaped into my mouth as I read that I was 
placed next Rudyard Kipling. From its hour of serving 
it was called a luncheon, but it proved to be a feast 
worthy of Luculhis. We met here the first or magazine 
party who had just returned from France and the fight- 
ing fronts and were to return to America in a few days, 
the Viscount having planned thus pleasantly to bring 
us together. When we were seated around the festive 
board, a panoplied butler, a sort of major donio, stood 
behind our titled host, who sat in a throne-like chair at 
the head of the table. Each event was announced with 
profound formality as follows: 

" My Lords and Gentlemen: I beg you give ear and 
listen to Viscount Northcliffe." 
And again: 

— 39 — 



i 



^VorldAVar " My Lords and Gentlemen : Viscount Northcliffe prays 
At Its you charge your glass and drink to the health of the 
CLm\x ^"^g *^^^<^ *^i^ President/' 

Glasses were charged as coninianded with best vintages 
of pre- Volstead days and every one arose and, holding 
his glass high, chorused: 
** The King and the President." 

On taking my seat I found I was not to sit next Rudyard 
Kipling. I was familiar with his picture and knew the 
man next me was not he, but, as I quickly learned, the 
Editor of The Mail, Viscount Xorthcliffe's great evening 
newspaper ^^ £^ 

Lord Xorthclitfe explained he would have wished more 
of the English newspaper and magazine men to be 
present, but lack of time forbade. Lloyd George, Prime 
Minister, had a war engagement which prevented his 
attendance; Balfour telegraphed he was to entertain 
the Editors next day; Kipling that he had missed his 
train in France and was unable to nuike connections; 
Lord Tennyson that he was ill at his home in the Isle of 
Wight, but his latch string there was out to the Editors 
where he 'd gladly receive them if only they \1 come. 
§ Then Lord Xorthclitl'e proposed a toast to the Ameri- 
can Editors and said: 

" I can assure you it is most gratifying to us in Printing 
House-square that so goodly a company should come 
together. Our American friends are divided today in this 
room into two companies. The first company are those 
who arrived in England some time ago and have had 
the thrilling experience of seeing the Great War at first 
hand, and who are now on their way back to the United 
States. The second division are those who have just 
arrived in England after a terrible experience in the 
Atlantic and who are leaving us for France in a very 
few hours. 

— 40 — 



" Most of our American friends of the first party, I World War 
understand, have hstened to over a hundred speeches. At Its 
They have eaten more than a liundred luncheons and Clj^^^x 
dinners. They would agree with me, I am sin-e, that ^ 
ordinary war oratory is a little tiresome. Yet I can not ' 
let this company part without telling you as one who 
had the pleasure of being in the United States during 
its great awakening that our guests today constitute 
a very powerful and very formidable body of public 
opinion in the Great Republic. Their circulations — if I 
may mention a delicate topic in newspaper circles — on 
what they call a conservative basis, amount to fifteen 
l)illion of copies. They come from a country which has 
two excellent laws: The name of every shareholder in a 
newspaper has to be made public, and the cir- 
culation manager has to reveal the secrets of his 
sanctum 5o» si^ 

" Our friends, having witnessed the sufferings of France 
and of Belgium, are going back to tell their country 
that the intervention of the United States is, to use one 
of their own phrases, worth while. When I was in America 
last year I wondered at the strange phenomenon of the 
rising young men of that nation, many of them resident 
hundreds, thousands of miles from the sea, drawn by 
some mysterious instinct to leave their prosperous lives 
to come on this mission across the Atlantic. Their cru- 
sade is one of the great miracles of the world. We who 
are here, especially those who have been to the front, 
are so apt to dw^ell upon the dreadful aspects of war 
that it may be wise to think of some of the things that 
are not so dreadful. We can reflect with admiration on 
the ease with which a nation has been transported across 
the Atlantic. We can dwell upon the popularizing of the 
means of communication, such as wireless telegraphy, 
and the extension of flight. We can comfort ourselves 
— 41 — 



^VoKl.D^VAV^ that these developinouts make for a better understand- 
Ar Its ii^r^ between the peoples of the future. 
CiiM\x "-^^^ these aeeomphshuieuts point to a worUl in whieh a 
V League of Nations would be a nineh more easy thiui: to 
• manage than it might have btXMi before these means of 
oomnuniieatiou were perftx^ted, and it is a faet that war 
has perfet^ted them more rapidly than many, many 
years of peaee. ^Ve have to look — we who are engaged 
in the business of spreading publie intelligenee at the 
etfei^t on our own industry of some of these develop- 
ments. Take tlight. for example. Will tiight eoueentrate 
newspaper produetion into one or two hands in great 
cM^nters whenoe the newspapers ma\- be disseminated 
by ilying maehines? Personally. I do not think it will. 
1 know that there are provineial eonnnunities appre- 
hensive of the destruetiou of their own loeal publie 
opinion — one of the most valuable inspirations towards 
national judgment. They are afraid that a metropolis 
may dominate publie opinion by newspapers spreading 
from that metn^polis. That has not btx^n the etl'tvt in 
tliis eountry of newspapers whieh. like one of my own. 
are dispersed from one center. These newspapers have 
had no etlW^t whatever on the standing of newspapers 
voicing Ux'al public opinion and Uval public thought. 
The maintenautx' of local public opinion is essential. 
AYe know, as a matter of fact, though not so well as we 
ought, that the voice of New York, which is the \oice 
we hear most often in England, is not at all the vimcc 
of the whole of the I'nited States, any more than the 
voicx' of London is the voice of the North of F.ngland 
or of Scotland. We know that those in the Vuited States 
who are scanning the public opinion' of America as to 
war looked with eagerness to the ^liddle West and the 
Far West and the South. They looked beyond New 
England nnd the seaboard States, ami they measured 
— 4^> — 



very ('.-ireful ly JiH lliosc ()|)ini<)iis lo sec lluil llic vvliolc VV()in>i)\VAi< 
couiilry was iiii.iiiiinous. P]v(MihmlIy public opiuioii \'i \'y^ 
\)cvi\u\v unaninKHis, iiol hccausc I lie Unilcd Slalcs lias /', ,.,.,. 

... . , , . \ L I M A \ 

aiiylluui; lo ^('l oul ol lliis war it has iioMhii^' vvlial- -, 
ever lo ^cl oul of il hul because of an overvvliclniiiii; * 
iiisliucl lo rise lo I he cause of juslice. 
'* 'rhesei^allieriiii;s of I^iii.i;lishuieii and American men are 
I he oulcouie of a, new (leparliiieul in our ( lOveriMuenl, a, 
(leparliueul Ihal nnisl and I hoju' will be a periuaueul, 
deparliueul, Ihe Deparluieul of luforuialion. Owiuj^' lo 
ill-heallh, liord JieavtM-brook, lo whose vision Ihe briu<;- 
iii^' logelher of Ihe editors of Ihe Uuiled Slales and Ihe 
i'dilors of (ireal I5rilaiii is due, is unable lo be here 
today. I consider Ihal Ihe elVorls he is making' lo brinj^' 
us lo,i;'elher are well worthy of Ihe cause in which we are 
e!i«;aj;ed. 'I'his j^ellin^" lo^elher of Ku^lishnien and 
AnuM'ican uumi may sound a, very obvious su^'^'cstiou, 
bul no one has <^iven elVecl lo il before. IL is due to 
Lord B(>averbrook au<l his Deparlmenl that we ai'c all 
iiere lo^'clhei'. I ask our r'n^lisii friends lo rise and drink 
lo Ihe heallii of our ^lU'sls and llieir lifleen billi<nis 
circulation." !>i^ .^©» 

Mr. V. V. (dass, Hirmin^hani, Alabama, News, chair- 
mau of Ihe secoud j^roup of American editors, replied 
to the toast, lie said:- - 

'' It is an unusual honor and privilege lo be |)r(\seul on 
this occasion, and I esteem it very, very deeply. I wish 
to thank Lord Norllicliffe and the other distinguished 
Hrilishers who uvv here, and your Cabinet, your (lova'rn- 
uhmU, and Lord iJeavcrbrook, who has so wry wisely, 
I Ihiidv, initiaUMJ this imporlaid movcuKMit in brinj^in^' 
represenlative news|)aper men and mai'azinc men from 
the Lnited Stales to this country. I believe it is ^'oin*;' to 
accom|)lish a <;real deal of ^ood. S|)eakin«;' for one i^no- 
ranuis like myself, who has never had the privile<^'e of 
— 43 — 



WoKi.nWvK visiting this uroat Mother C^oiiutry bofoiv. 1 am sure 1 

At Irs 'I'l^ uoinu' to ho instnictod aiul guidod aiui tioopoiiod 

Ci iM vx '^^^^^ bonotiteii more tlian by aiiythiiiii' that has liappoiiod 

-. ill my oxporionoo in a uiimbor of years past. I am sure 

' that every one of our party will go baek far better 

equipped, far more useful, and. I hope, far more iutlu- 

entiai ^in spite i^f our limited eireulatiiM^ than we have 

ever been bet\>re. 

" ^Ve are deliuhted with the liospitalitN >hown to us on 
all sides. 

'• We have been greeted e\en l>y the heavens 
with eharm. \Ve luul a beautiful sunny day eoming from 
Liverpool to London, atul the dismal fog we have heard 
about was noi here. The sunshine in the heart and mind 
of every Englishman with whom we lun e lome in eou- 
taet has only reiterated and eontirmed i>ur reception on 
the first day from the elements. We in America are 
tremeuilonsly interested in this attaek in Franee. We 
are delighted to be here today following the magnitieent 
victory oi the Uritish armies in Franee. and we hope 
before many weeks have passed by there may be 
equivalent vii'tories on the part oi the Freneh. and per- 
haps something more of the kind from Cieneral IVrshing, 
our great leader there, with his increasing force. 
*' You spoke, my lord, of the great ditUculties we had in 
coming over on ship. We had very great discomfort from 
the weather and sickness, and various conilitii>ns not 
luvessary to mention. \'ery little news came to our ship. 
The wireless was not working all the time. i>r \\e were 
noi trusted with nuich of its wingeil news. There was a 
rumor atloat that Hulgaria had sued for peace, and 
that the war might end right away. bet\>re we could stx* 
it. Among the eighteen hundred troops on board the 
constant expression of otlicers and men was this: * Sup- 
pose befiMV we get there it is all o\er.' These men. in 
— 44 - 



spilt' ol' llic (l;in«;('rs lo wliicli llicy were exposed, wniilcd WorldWah 
lo gel lo h'nmcc lo InUc |);irl in I lie <i,r('jil viclory wliicli At Its 
we arc ^oiii^ lo Jicliievc. I luivc \)ccu very nuicli picjiscd (\ i»i*v 
hy IIk' Irihulo Lord NculiiclillV jins paid lo llic spiril ^, 
of liic AiiuMicaii iK'opIc, vvliicii lie \iiu\ minsiud oi)|)or- * 
liinilics ol" disc('riiiii<;- during- liis residence in I he Ihiiled 
Shiles. We lijive been liioii^ld lo be only a dollar-loviiii;" 
peoj)le, jMid I nuisl eonless IJinl some of our news|)n.per 
and nia|;a/iiie people have in llie ])jisl walclied Ihe dollar 
pretty closely. Some of them liave made a few dolhirs 
now and Ihen. We jire, Jifter all, a nation of idealists. 
We are born of Hrilish blood, most of us. We have the 
highest regard .iiid veneration for the fundamental 
principles of justice. All our laws and c(>nslilul ions are 
bottomed on the common law of Mn^land. Our own 
Declaration is onl\' a ren(«wal of the Maj^na Cliarla of 
your country, and we are determined, as far as we may 
beabl(\ to insisi in estal)lishin<^' I hese ])rinciples through- 
out thewoild. ^Ve h()|)e out of this war will cornea 
day of sunshine for all Ihe world, in which there will 
be real inleiiialional law, some sort of international 
court, and maybe some sort of international police lo 
enforce the ruling' of that court. Kn^lish justice, 
American justice, Kn^lish and French and American 
ideals, musi ])revail in Ihe world, and, (iod willing, 
they shall." 

Dr. Edwai'd J. Wheeler, Everybody's ]\higazine, a, mem- 
ber of the first group of editors, also replied to the 
loasl. 

^ He e\|)ressed diflidence in sp(«aking for Ihe American 
editors and for his country before a grou|) of critical 
American newsj)ai)er men. 

" Down in Charleslown, West Virginia, years ago,'' he 

said, " there was an old darkey who had a chance to buy 

a tombstone at a bargjiin. lie took the chance, and 

— 45 — 



AA'orldAVak wanted some sort of fitting epitaph put on the stone 

At Its aiiainst tlie day of his death. He went to a hnvyer friend 

Clim\x ^^^ ^^^"^^ '^'^^^ asked him to write the epitapli. The hnvyer, 

' ^ after thinking- for a few minutes, wrote it in the fohow- 

* ing words, and I an\ toUi tliey are on the toml)stone 

today in Charlestown:. * I did n't eome here for to do 

no harm.' 

** 1 think that apphes to us Ameriean editors. We 
' did n't come liere to do no harm.' I think the facts will 
bear us out that we have not done any harm. Our 
journey, that of the tirst group, has l>een a triumphal 
procession from the beginning. Almost as soon as we 
left New York we began to receive wireless news that 
the Central Powers were trembling and retreating. By 
the time we reached Great Britain we found that the 
Allies were pushing their line forward on all the nine 
fronts throughout the world. By the time we reached 
Paris we found that one of the Central Powers had 
already sued for peace. By the time we got back to 
England we found that all the (^entral Powers were 
asking for an armistice and for terms of peace. AVe think 
a very good case could be made out to show that the 
group of American editors who Ih-st came over here have 
been winning the war. By the time the second group 
have left they will be convinced that they have been 
winning the war. I do not think we are going to have a 
chance of sending over more than three or four groups. 
No more will be necessary. 

*' In the last month we have had more mental impres- 
sions than we can assimilate in another year, and we 
have been placed under more social obligations than we 
can ever hope to repay. The impressions we take away 
are mixed, and yet some of them are coming ou\ more 
and more clearly and distinctly. 

1 think one of them that we take away from England 
— 46 — 



is that the old hulldof^ that stands for the symbol of World War 
English deterniination and pluck is a most excellent At Its 
symbol. We have seen the grit of your people mani- Climax 
tested, not only in their words and deeds, but in the ^ 
cheerful smiles of your women. The Bulldog is all right, ' 
but the worst national symbol I know of today is the 
(iallic cock of France. France is doing no strutting and 
no crowing. The (iallic cock will not do for France 
today. 

^ " These are some of the impressions that we carry 
away. The mass of the impressions we can not assimi- 
late, nuich less describe. You said, my lord, that America 
had nothing to gain from this war. I think that is abso- 
lutely true as you meant it, and yet, in another sense, 
America has just as nuich to gain as England or France 
or any other country in the wide world. We are not at 
war for England, or Belgium, or France, or Italy. We 
are at war just as much for America, for the United 
States, as you are at war for yourselves and France is at 
war for France. Although our country has not been 
invaded, and although there is no fear of invasion 
during the war, yet we know we are fighting just as 
much for ourselves, for the defence of our institutions, 
the defence of our liberties and our civilization, as any 
other country. It is just as much America's fight as it 
is yours." 

Others present at tliis function beside newspaper and 
magazine men were: 

Mr. Irwin Laughlin, American ('liarge d' Affaires, the 
Earl of Reading, (i. C 15., Lord Burnham, Lord Roth- 
ermere, Vice-Admiral W. S. Sims, G. C. M. G., Mr. E. 
C. Schoecraft, Sir A. Conan Doyle, Mr. H. G. Ciuy 
Gaunt, Lieutenant-(]olonel Sir Campbell Stuart, K.ILE., 
Major Evelyn Wrench, C. M. G., Colonel the Hon. 
A. G. Murray, M. P., Mr. H. J. Learoyd, Mr. Valentine 
— 47 — 



"NVc>ki,d\Vak 
At Its 
Climax 
f 



Wallace. Mv. Vs. Siithorland, ami :\Ir. G. A. Sulton. 
Mr. AV. A. AiK'klaiul, Mr. C. 1. Hoattio. :\Ir. J. P. Hlniul, 
Mr. G. :\l. HriinuvolL Mr. 11. Corbott, :Mr. M. lliiin- 
phrev Daw, Mr. CuHitVrov Oawsou, Mr. Llovd Kvans, 
Mr. T. K. 'Mackoiizio, :SlV. 11. G. Price. O. H. K., Mr. 
\V. Lints Smith, and Mr. H. W. Stood. 




Lonl Xorthrliffe 



— 48 



(HAITI :ii Vlli 




The English-Speaking Union 

Hal four's Epochal Speech which ('anstically Arraigned Germany 
and Contained a Few Important Prophecies — Acknowledged 
the Great Part America Was Taking in Winning the War and 
said She Alone Had the Poiver and the Ability to T'leip Ger- 
man ji in a Material Way. 

MONCf iiottihle dinners early after our 
arrival in London, <?iven in our honor, 
was that of the English Speaking 
IhiioM, of which Arthur J. Halfour was, 
aud I believe still is, j)resident. Anioug 
I hose i)resent were Admiral Sims of 
I he United States Navy, Major (ien- 
erai Kiddle of tlie United States Army, Major Evelyn 
Wrench, Major-Cieneral Swinton, ('olonel McC'lamouth, 
M. P., Sir Fortescue Flannery, M. P., Sir ('amphell 
Stuart, Sir Harry Brittain, II. (iordon Self ridge, form- 
erly of Chicago, now London's merchant j)rince, wliere 
he adopted American methods after the fashion of 
Marshall Field in Chicago and demonstrated that 
Yankee enterprise and grit could be engrafted upon 
London. These and hundreds of others, titled and un- 
titled, attended. 

Mr. Balfour in proposing the health of the guests 
rejoiced to see them in Europe at this time because 
happily it coincided with a most favorable military 
development of the situation, (ireat indeed was the 
change between March and October. He knew of no 
similar period of history so great and dramatic in the 
— 49 — 



? 



^VoKLD^^AK transfonnatiou tliat had taken place on so heioio a 
At Its J^«^*ide. dealiuii' with issues so luonieiitous for the future 
Cii-M\x ^^^ ^^^^ worki. AVe were all fortunate in being witnesses 
of it, and the guests who had eonie from the I nited 
States at this moment were fortunate in the occasion of 
their coming. He did not pretend for a moment that 
Allied dithcnlties were at an end, but he should be pro- 
foundly disappointed if the tide of victory t^o^^ing so 
strongly ever rtveived a serious setback from the enemy. 
^ He continued as follows: 

"* As president of this society and as chairman oi this 
function it falls to me to undertake the honorable duty 
of proposing the health of our guests and giving them a 
warm welcome on the cx^casion of their visit to this 
country. AVe rejoice to see them among us, and we 
particularly rejoice btvause the moment of their visit 
has been happily timed. 

" I am contident that what we began to do so success- 
fully in July and carried on with increasing good for- 
tune in August and September and the early part of the 
present month is no accidental or momentary success, 
but in truth represents the growing strength of the 
Allies as compared with the waning strength of our 
opponents. And if that be so, and if my estimate of the 
situation be not too sanguine, then the problem before 
us is not to make up oin* mind as to whether we shall or 
shall not win the war, for that seems ever clearer, but 
whether we shall really use the victory which is within 
our grasp to tlie best purpose for the moment, for the 
next few years, and, last but not least, for posterity, 
whose fate depends upon our etl'orts. 
*' AVe have to nuike a right peace: and 1 do not think 
that a right peace is of itself a very easy tiling to make. 
Our enemies, who I may parenthetically remark are 
attempting to change their constitution, appear to have 
— 50 — 



lu) notion I hat what we want is not so nuich a clian^e of World War 
llio form of thoapparatns t)f g'ovornniont as a ('lian*;v in \'i^ Its 
tlio licarts l)v wliic'li that «>ovornniont is to he diivctocl /^,ttv*ay 
and annnatod, and it wo are to .inagt^ — and snrely we ^ 
may jnduv withonl nnfairness of a man's lieart l)y what " 
lie does, I wonid ask yon whetlier lliose who ha\e made 
mankind pale witli horror over their early barbarities 
and brutal exeesses in lU^lgium show the least si^n that 
four years of war have in any material respeet improved 
their disposition. Brutes they were when they began 
the war, and, as far as we ean judge, brutes they remain 
at the present moment. 1 speak, i)erhaps with a warmth 
of indignation nnl>etitting a Foreign Seeretary, but w^ith 
the news of this outrage in the Irisli Channel, of whieh 
I have just been getting, I won't say the details, l)ut 
the rough outline from my gallant friend on my left. 
Admiral Sims- I eonfess that 1 find it ditlieult to meas- 
ure my epithets, for, if I rightly understand the story, 
this Irish [)aeket-boat — eranuned as it always is, with 
men, women and children — in l)road daylight was 
tlelil)erately torpedoed by a (lerman submarine. It was 
earrying no military stores. It was serving no military 
eutls. It was pure l)arl)arism, pure frightfulness, delib- 
erately carried out, and one would have thought that 
tluxse who, after all, l)rought in America to their own 
undoing l)y crimes of this sort, would have shrunk a 
little from repeating them at a moment when their fate 
is to be decided by America perhaps even more than by 
any other of the co-l)elligerents. I can not measure the 
w icked folly of the proceeding of which they have been ^ 

guilty. And yet let us not forget that tliat is only one, 
and not the most destructive, the most cowardly, or the 
most brutal thing which at this moment, when they are 
asking for peace, they are perpetrating upon helpless 
civilians or still more helpless prisoners of war. I wish 
— 51 — 



^YoRLD^VAR I could tliiuk that these atrocie^us crimes were the crimes 
At Its ^^^' '^ small domimuit military caste. I agree that the 
Clim\x tiirectioii of policy, the direction of national policy, may 
be in the hands of a small caste, but it is incredible that 
crimes like these, perpetrated in the light of day. known 
to all mankind, condemned from one end of the civilized 
world to the other, should go on being repeated month 
after month for four years of embittered warfare if it 
did not commend itself to the population which com- 
mits them. However, gentlemen, it was not of that 1 
wanted to speak. I was led otT from the course of my 
speech, such as it was, by the retlections suggested by 
this most tragic and deplorable episode, and 1 rather 
wanted to say to you and to say to our friends and guests 
that when peace approaches, when peace comes to be 
considered, and when that period of reconstruction 
comes, when peace is arranged, all sorts of new ditH- 
culties are bound to arise which will require the tact 
and judgment of statesmen to get over, and, if I may 
say so to our guests, the co-operation, the loyal and 
ettective co-operation of the great newspapers of the 
world to see it carried through. The poet, as we all know, 
has said that peace has its victories as well as war, and 
let me say that the victories of peace will be at least as 
hard of accomplishment as the victories of war. They 
will put as great a strain upon all the higher moral and 
intellectual qualities of the peoples concerned as even 
the great struggle in which we have all been engaged. 
^ " I know, and I think you all know, but I know, from 
watching to the best of my ability the utterances of the 
German newspapers, that what they coimt upon now, 
and what they have always counted upon, is jealousy 
and disagreement between their opponents. It is the 
sort of calculation which I think will fail. But it is the 
sort of calculation which has a kind of external plaus- 
— 5i — 



ihility and unless it be watched may even have an World War 
olenient of reahty in it. They say to themselves, ' The At Its 
union of the great English-speaking people is the most Cumax 
formidable factor we have had to deal with in this war, ^ 
but that won't last.' There are old causes of difference * 
between these two branches of civilization. lioth are at 
the present moment great commercial and industrial 
nations, but both possess and aim at, rightly aim at, a 
connnerce spreading over the world. Britain, which 
used to be sui)reme in the matter of mercantile marine, 
now sees growing upon the other side of the Atlantic 
a mercantile marine of unlimited size. ' Here,' say our 
(lernian friends, ' here are elements which in a short 
time, when the first intoxication of victory is over, may 
well produce differences of opinion between our ojjpon- 
ents from which we shall profit.' I believe myself thjit 
there never was a shallower miscalculation. We mem- 
bers of the English-speaking Union do not regard our- 
selves as the missionaries and apostles of a disowned or 
difficult cause. We regard ourselves as simply embodying 
in an organization a real union which already exists, 
which is growing, and which, to the infinite benefit of 
the world, is, I think, predestined to grow for genera- 
tions &9^ S^ 

" I am one of those who believe that civilization is to be 
ministered to by permitting nations of different genius, 
each to develop that genius in its own way, each, there- 
fore, to contribute its own characteristic element to the 
general intellectual and moral pleasures of mankind, 
and I therefore don't wish to see all the world moulded 
into one form of culture. If I had the power I would 
not attempt to do what the (iermans attempted to do, 
which is to spread any particular type of culture over 
the whole of reluctant humanity. That, I think, is folly; 
but at the same time, let me add this — while there are, 
— 53 — 



World ^YAR and will doubtless always be ditt'erences of outlook 
At Its between various branches of the English-speaking 
Clim\x Peoples, whether they belong to the I nited States, to 
i these small islands, or to the great self-governing 
^ dominions of the British Empire, while there will always 
be differences born of environment, born from historical 
causes, born of the countless sulitle elements which 
greatly produce that curious entity, national character; 
granting all that, I believe that there is such a thing as 
the English-speaking method of looking at the great 
affairs of mankind, and that method of outlook is of 
infinite value to the freedom and progress of the world, 
and can only be truly accomplished if there be an inner 
harmony, an inner regard between all the elements of 
the great I^nglish-speaking connnunities of which every- 
body in this room is a citizen and a member. That is my 
conviction, and if there was or could be any doubt that 
that intinuite union is natural, is right, is fruitful for 
the good of the world, and if there could have been any 
doubt that that union of hearts is destined to be per- 
manent, these doubts would surely be dissipated by the 
events of the last few months. 

" After all, there is nothing which binds people closer 
together than the consciousness of great deeds done in 
common, great acts of heroism performed side by side, 
great services to humanity carried out in brotherly 
co-operation. That consciousness all of us have now in 
the highest measure; that consciousness will grow. 
History will embalm it, and it will beixmie part of 
international tradition. It will make happier, easier and 
far more glorious that union which we exist to promote 
— that union which is based upon mutual respect, a 
common love of freedom, a common language, conunon 
law, connnon literature and which has in it such infinite 
potential good for the benefit of mankind. Ladies and 
— 54 — 



¥ 



,i>eiitlenieii, 1 beg to ask you to drinlv with us to the World War 
liealth of tlie re})reseutatives of tlie great Auierieau At Its 
press. jNIav thev liave every good fortuue atieud tlieui, r^ tmav 
aud uiay tiiey go t)aelv with kuidly thouglits ot the 
eouutry which desires uothiug uiore thau lo give [\wu\ 
geuerous h()S])ilahty/' 

Mr. F. P. (ilass of Hiruiiughaiu, Ahd)ania, respoudiug 
to the toast ou behalf of the Auierieaii editors, said 
America wanted some of the lionor and distinction of 
having accomphslied sometliing substantial in the world 
struggle for tlie establishment of justice — English jus- 
tice, if they pleased — for the bulk of Americans were of 
English blood, and were proud of their English deriva- 
tions of law and theories of justice, whether they 
administered those laws so nicely as the English did 
or not. 

Admiral Sims said that it was very important liiat the 
American peoj)le should be absolutely informed as to 
what was taking place on this side. They had not been 
too accurately informed. There had been a number of 
misapprehensions which had done some damage, but to 
what extent that was the fault of the press, he was not 
sure. He had c(uestioiied a good many Americans who 
lijid come to this country as to what they thought of 
things over here. For example, he had asked Americans 
who, as was customary when they crossed the Atlantic, 
had had to elbow their way through submarines, how 
many submarines they supposed were operating against 
the merchant ships and transports making })()rt. lie 
would like to ask the editors present how many they 
thought were operating. Wlien he had asked he had 
never seen an estimate of less than fifty and sometimes 
it was a hundred. As a matter of fact, the average 
number was eight or nine, and it sometimes ran up to 
twelve or thirteen. Of all the submarines that the enemy 
— 55 — 



World War had that was the most tliat were kept out. Another idea 
At Its ^^^^s sometimes in the American mind that the American 
Climvx ^^'^^^'y ^^'"^^ been doing the bulk of the business over here 
^ — at least a half. That was not correct. There were about 
' three thousand anti-submarine craft operating day and 
night, and the American craft numbered one hundred 
sixty, or three per cent. The same ratio applied in the 
^Mediterranean. Again, Americans seemed to regard it 
as a miracle of their Navy that they had got a million 
and a half troops here in a few months, and had pro- 
tected them on the way. " We did n't do that," Admiral 
Sims said. ** Great Britain did." 

Our party were handed a pami)hlet giving this explana- 
tion of what the Union is and aims to be: 
" The English-Speaking Union is an attempt to draw 
together in the bond of conn-adeship the English-speak- 
ing peoples of the world. The movement has been 
formed by a group of Americans and Britishers — in no 
spirit of hostility to any people. It is felt that the corner- 
stone on which the Eeague of Nations must l)e built is 
a complete understancling and friendly co-operation 
between the two great sections of the English-speaking 
peoples. On them will very largely fall the problem of 
making the world safe for democracy. 
" In IS'^o Thomas Jett'erson, s})eaking of Great Britain, 
wrote to President ^Nlunroe : ' With her on our side we 
need not fear the whole world. With her then we should 
most sedulously cherish a cordial friendship, and nothing 
would tend more to knit our affections than to be fight- 
ing once more, side by side, in the same cause.' Little 
did Jetferson think when he penned these words that 
one hundred years later the two great sections of the 
English-speaking world would be fighting side by side 
for common ideals. 
" The aim of the English-speaking Union is, briefly, to 



make the English-speaking peoples of the world better World War 
known to each other, whether they be Americans, At Its 
Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, South Afri- Climax 
cans, Newfoundlanders, or the inhabitants of the ^ 
British Isles and their dependencies. • 

" It does not aim at formal alliances, nor is it concerned 
with the relationship of governments; it is solely and 
simply a good fellowship movement among the people 
who speak the tongue that Shakespeare spake. 
" The aim of the promoters, American and British, is 
that no citizen of the English-speaking world should 
ever feel lonely again after the War, that no American 
visiting the Old Country should ever want a friend, and 
that no Britisher should ever want one in the (ireat 
Republic. A good fellowship movement, glad hand club, 
whatever you may like to call it, but it has more than a 
purely social side. 

" In ninety -five per cent of the things that matter the 
English-speaking peoples, whether they come from the 
United States, from the British dominions in the far 
antipodes, or from the Mother Country, have the same 
outlook, the same ideals, the same conceptions of right 
and wrong, the same laws, the same literature. It is only 
in the remaining five per cent of superficial things that 
they differ. 

" The Englishman is more reserved and goes to his club 
when he wishes to be alone and to escape from his 
friends. The American, on the other hand is more soci- 
able and goes to his club to meet his friends! The 
Englishman drinks tea in the afternoon, the Australian 
drinks his tea in the morning at eleven and the American 
drinks iced water! Once we know each other, we get to 
understand these little surface differences and realize 
that in all the things that matter we see eye to eye. 
^ " If the English-speaking peoples would pull together 
— .57 — 



^YoRLD AA'ar in no mean spirit of exclusion or race pride, but in one 
At Its ^^^ humbleness, and show by their actions that they 
r^TTurix- realize the vast responsibility towards the smaller 
fe nationalities ot the world whicli is theirs, there is no 
^ limit to the great part they miiiiit play in abolishing 
war for all time and in spreading the reign of order and 
good fellowship throughout the world. 
** One hundred years ago when the autocracies of 
Europe cast longing eyes towards the South American 
continent and desired to re-establish monarchical insti- 
tutions, America and Great Britain stood together, and 
largely owing to that spirit of co-operation, to which 
Thomas Jeti'erson referred, the struggling young South 
American Republics were securely launched on their 
national careers. 

" Our aim is to establish a branch of the Knglish- 
Speaking Union wherever Americans and Britishers are 
to be found and it does not require any very wide tiight 
of imagination to envisage a chain of great buildings 
devoted to the common service, encircling the globe; 
the outward symbol of a great bond of sympathy which 
believes in the great tasks of reconstruction in which the 
English-Speaking peoples must always lead the way." 
^ In America, William H. Taft of the United States 
Supreme Uoiirt is and has been from the beginning the 
President. The American branch has giowii ci>nstantly 
both in numbers and activitv. 



58 



( IIAI'TKR IX 




A Day at Sandringham 

Red Letter F/vent for I'lihli.'ilter.i, Newspaper and Magazine — 
Entire Royal Family Threw Aside Formality and Seemed to 
Enjoy Themselves. King George, Making Use of Roosevelt's 
Fatuous Expression Declared He Had Had a liidly Day. 

i\ Saturday, October l^th, the Aiiieri- 
caii publishers and editors were 
informed that Kin^" (ieor<>e and Queen 
Mary wouhl be <i;raciously pleased to 
receive them on the day folio win<»' at 
their country seat, Sandringham. It 
was intimated by the Ministry of Infor- 
mation Ihat it was a most unusual concession, for his 
Majesty and his coiu't preferred to observe well estab- 
lished traditions and keep to themselves on the Sabbath 
day at least. 

Sandringham, sunnner home of British royalty, more 
than one Inmdred miles from London, is on the east 
coast, near the sea. It consists of fifteen hundred acres 
with trees, shrubbery, plants and flowers from every 
quarter of the glol)e. It has attractive lakes and ponds 
and wonderful conservatories. All were then sadly 
neglected, because war had taken away three hundred 
and fifty men who were regularly employed. King 
Edward accjuired and developed tliis estate, which con- 
tained his fine thoroughbred racing stud and stables. 
It is now the permanent residence of his widow, the 
Dowager Queen Alexandra. It descended to King 
(leorge and is the only actual property of the King. 
— 50 — 



World AVak ^Yindsor castle, Biickiiighani palace and Balmoral castle 
At Its ^^'*^ '^11 properties of the Crown. 
CLnL\x Q^i^^^i Alexandra, mother of the King, occupied the 
" Castle." which is no castle at all, but a fine country 
home. The King dwells, during his stay at Sandringham, 
in the comparatively modest York cottage. Here he 
rests for several weeks in sunmier — the pheasant hunt- 
ing season. Here all the children of George and Mary 
were born. 

With the King and the Queen receiving us, were their 
daughter Princess ^lary, the King's sister. Princess 
Louise and the King's mother, the Dowager Queen 
Alexandra .^^ s^ 

The time of our visit was auspicious. Great news had 
just come out of Germany to the etl'ect that Junkerdom 
had decided to capitulate, after foiu' years of war. and 
it was to be supposed that the atmosphere about Sand- 
ringham would be most congenial for felicitations. There 
were no Simday papers, in the American sense, in Great 
Britain, but the King, of course, had his own private 
information about the important turn of events. A royal 
messenger was aboard the train which bore the tv.enty- 
tliree Americans to Sandringham. His commission was 
to tell King George what the King already knew. 
The journey to Sandringham was taken in a special 
train, under a semi-cloudy sky. through a lovely land- 
scape. There was a glimpse of the famous university town 
of C'ambridge and of the historic cathedral at Ely. The 
party arrived at Sandringham station, reserved for the 
guests of royalty, about two o'clock, and found waiting 
them three spick and span carryalls. ^leanwhile instruc- 
tions as to how the party was to be received had been 
given. They were to be divided into three groups, and 
each group was to meet the King separately and was to 
remain not more than ten minutes. It was expected that 
— (iO — 



his Majesty would have had quite enough in that brief World War 
period. But it soon proved that the courtiers were wrong At Its 
in deciding just who should be privileged to bask in the Clk^ax 
smiles of royalty and for just how long. ^ 

By a coincidence American magazine and periodical * 
publishers, who were in London, were included in the 
royal request, and we all went together to Sandringham, 
giving the King his first personal view of and contact 
with composite American journalism. It was hinted by 
those who arranged the audience that it was substantial 
and convincing evidence of the high interest of the King 
in what was hoped would be established permanently — 
cordial relations between two English-speaking nations. 
^ It was a drive of about a mile from the railway 
station by winding ways, through an attractive land- 
scape, that brought the party to Sandringham. A func- 
tionary in bright red coat, decorated with many medals, 
indicating worthy service in the Life Guards, ushered 
all into the waiting room. There were other officials, with 
no special insigna of rank or station, who, with wellbred 
ease, made the guests feel (juite at home. 
An aged man. Sir Richard Probyn, hero of East Indian 
warfare, possessor of the Victoria Cross, was the per- 
sonal attendant and courtier of Queen Alexandra. All 
the court ladies were dressed much as one sees the 
women of America in an American city every day, in 
admirably fitted tailored suits. There was no ostenta- 
tion, no stiffness, little ceremony. The members of the 
visiting party had been counseled not to offer needlessly 
to shake hands with the King or the Queen unless they 
first made the approach, which the royal personages did 
in every instance. "Address the King as ' Your Majesty ' 
and the Queen in like manner " it was said. Some of 
the editors perhaps forgot the rules, but no one at- 
tempted any familiarity, and certainly none was in- 
'— 61 — 



World War vited: but every one of the royal personages, after the 
At Its introduction, adopted easy conversation with some one 
Clim\x ^^ other of the Americans. 

' ^ In welcoming us to Sandringham, King George spoke 
^ of bygone differences between America and England. 
We of America had perhaps misunderstood England 
and certainly Enghmd had misunderstood America. We 
were together now. and, in a right way, when war 
ended, should be the great leaders of the world in all 
good. The King continued along the lines of Cecil 
Rhodes's dream of a wonderfid South African empire — 
that America should send her sons to England to be 
educated in the arts and sciences, and that England 
slioidd send her sons to America to acquire the culture 
and education we had to give. 

It was manifest that King George was in accord with 
the sentiment prevailing in England at that time, favor- 
ing a close union with the great American republic, — no 
binding agreement, no formal league, no contractual 
alliance, merely rapprochment, which would forestall 
vital disagreements and which would mean combined 
harmony and unity among all the English-speaking 
nations c^^ s^ 

After many pleasantries with the King and Queen and 
their attendants, the guests were asked if they desired 
to go over Sandringham. All were deliglited, of course, 
and the whole company started, under the guidance of 
the King and Queen, to view the grounds. The King and 
Queen walked rapidly. First there was a visit to York 
cottage, where there was a close-up view of how the 
royal family lives. Some of the King's entourage took 
charge of certain groups of the editors, and each 
attendant appeared to be anxious to show the advan- 
tages and attractions of the great estate at its best. One 
curious journalist asked each of half a dozen lords and 
— 6^2 — 



f 



ladies what was the area of Sandringhani. All said they World War 
did not know. But the King promptly settled all doubts At Its 
by declaring it fifteen hundred acres. Climax 

York cottage is a plain brick dwelling of fifteen or 
twenty rooms, of only moderate size, with a workshop, 
or study, for the King. If there were any special court- 
iers or equerries there, they were not seen. The equip- 
ment in furniture and in modern convenience was com- 
plete and in some respects elegant; but there are many 
homes in America, some of them in Syracuse, which 
might be compared favorably with it. 
There was a long toiu* to the gardens and to the stables, 
particular hobbies of King Edward. A pony and cart, 
driven by the faithful Probyn, followed the company 
around. It was for the use of Queen Alexandra, but she 
went the entire rounds with the others on foot, and did 
not at any time appear to lose interest in her guests or 
in what they were saying and seeing. 
In the vicinity of the royal stables is a great statue of 
Persimmon King. He was bred at Sandringhani. It is a 
magnificent effigy of a splendid thoroughbred. In the 
stables were many of the best thoroughbreds in the 
world. Each visitor, under tutelage of the Queen and 
the Dowager, busied himself in passing to the thorough- 
breds, carrots, which they ate with great gusto. In all, 
there nmst have been one hundred stallions and mares. 
The chief of the stud was Friar Marcus, never beaten 
as a two-year-old. 

Several members of the party, who had the good fortune 
to be accompanied by Queen Alexandra, were asked to 
a place she called a '* workshop." It appears to be 
modeled somewhat after the artcraft establishments 
common in America — The Roycrofters, of East Aurora, 
for exami)le. There were many beautiful pieces of deli- 
cate hand-made furniture. The companions of the 
— 63 — 



World ^VAK Queen were delighted with what they saw and said so. 

At Its ^^^ coin-se: whereupon she graeiously presented to each 

Climvx ^^^ ^^^^' surprised and soniewliat embarrassed Americans 

g a tea-tal>le. One of the pieces went to HutValo, one to 

* San Francisco and one to Portland. Oregon. 

The King expressed a desire to show the editors through 
his library, doubtless with the idea that it would be of 
especial interest to men engaged in a literary calling. 
And so it was. The library had once been a bowling 
alley, but King Edward had thought it would be more 
useful and ornamental as a place of study and retlei^tion, 
and he made the change. King George lead the way to 
Sandringham chapel, a wonderfid house of worship, 
with many cherished deiH^rations and memorials. Then 
he took the visitors back to his reception room, where 
he and the royal group bade good-by ti^ all. shaking 
hands cordially with each. 

There was every reason to believe the hosts were as 
pleased with the event as were the guests. 
King (leorge is a very democratic man, and his entire 
family treated us as if we, not they, were royalty. 
The tour was completed by a second visit to the nuiiu 
house, where tea was served. It was a rather elaborate 
function, though all the royal party continued to mingle 
with the visitors in the most democratic fashion. 
It was a great dav for the edititrs. anvwav. 



— (54 — 



( IIAPTKR X 



" The Thunderer " 




Pioneer of the World' ^ Great Xeic^papers — Goi)ig lioch to Shahr- 
speare's Days — Built on Site of Great Playwright's Theater — 
History and Development of this Journalistic Institution. 

I SITING newspaper men observed an 
aniaziuij; ditt'erence between British 
and French newspapers and those of 
America. Ilhistrative of this was on 
Armistice Day. At home an enterpris- 
ing newspaper man wonld have noti- 
fied President Wilson that armistice 
was signed and ask what he had to say or was going to 
ilo abont it. In Enghmd, King George or Lloyd (leorge, 
or some other official (leorge has first to make pnblic 
annonncement and then newspapers are privileged to 
speak. It is, however, only a difi'erence of method. 
English and French newspapers, notwithstanding these 
shortcomings from an American viewpoint, are a mighty 
power abroad as well as in America. 
Our party also was struck with the smallness of English 
and French publications. Practically no advertising 
ai)peared. With the exception of the great London 
Times, in England, Scotland, Ireland and France dailies 
were four pages. Usually The Times was ten or twelve 
pages, never more than fourteen, Paris editions of the 
New York Herald consisted of only two pages ^Mondays, 
four pages on other days. Shortage of paper had much 
to do with it. as Germany in peace times had manu- 
— 65 — 



"World War factured newsprint in great qnantities and sold it to 

At Its other European countries. 

Clim\x ^^^'^<^<^ii '^^^^ Norway likewise were large producers of 

J newsprint. But war had commandeered the output of 

* paper mills for many purposes, so that the making of 

supplies for newspapers was of secondary importance. 

In Germany, especially, a big percentage of newspapers 

were discontinued permanently — she using paper to 

make clothes. 

The Times is traditionally a London institution known 
as '* The Thunderer " in the newspaper world. One 
of the guests to whom an editor of The Times had been 
introduced and who inquired. *" What Times: New York 
or London.^ " was loftily reminded there was only one 
Times c^^ .^^ 

At one of the notable \'iscount Xorthchtt'e functions 
the Viscount called attention to the fact that the build- 
ing in which we sat was the most ancient home of print- 
ing in all the world, three hundred years, and long 
before The Times was established. Printing House- 
square, he admitted, did not compare with the news- 
paper palaces of America. Each afternoon. Lord Xorth- 
clitfe explained, there was printed the smallest circulated 
newspaper in the world. It was The Times's permanent 
record edition designed for its own files and libraries. 
It was i)roduced on linen paper, believed to be inde- 
structible, and with indelible ink. 

The favors at the dinner at which this knowledge was 
imparted included a handsome book printed for the 
occasion. On the front page is a picture of Printing 
House-square in Seventeen Hundred Xinety-four. in a 
district known as l>lackfriars. site of a monastery of 
black-robed Dominicans founded there in the last 
quarter of the thirteenth century. King Edward II held 
a Parliament here early in the fourteenth century. In 
— 66 — 



¥ 



FiftecMi Iliiiidrod Eleven the Emperor Charles V stayed World War 
here, and in Fifteen Ilnndred Twenty-three King Henry At Its 
VIII held here a Parliament, known as the Black (Climax 
Parliament. Fifteen years later, on the dissolution of 
the monasteries, the monks left their great buildings 
and the eonventual buildings were sold or leased. Among 
those who bought })ro})erly here was William Shake- 
speare. The district included the fashionable Bljickfriars 
Playhouse, which was owned by Shakespeare's company 
of players, and was attended by Queen Elizabeth. Here 
Shakes])eare\s company held the stage for many years, 
although Shakespeare had then ceased to be an actor, 
and here were acted the great works of Elizabethan 
dramatists: Ben Jonson, Marston, Fletcher, Mjissin- 
ger, probably of Shakespeare himself. 
In Sixteen Hundred Sixty-six The (ireat Fire of London 
devastated the region. A year later there was built on 
this spot the King's Printing House, whence Printing 
H()use-s(iuare takes its name, and John Bill, the King's 
Printer, i)rinted the London (lazette, which was then 
the only paper in England. In Seventeen Hundred 
Thirty-seven The King's Printing House was burned. 
In Seventeen Hundred Eighty-four it was taken by the 
first member of the family that has ever since been 
identified with the spot, John Walter, founder of The 
Times .'5^ &^ 

It is strange that the man who founded The Times was 
neither a journalist nor a printer. John Walter had been 
a coal merchant, then an underwriter of shipping. 
French and American wars caused losses which put him 
into bankruptcy in or about Seventeen Hundred Eighty- 
three. Henry Joluison about this time had devised and 
patented a method of printing by means of logotypes, 
a font consisting of whole words instead of separate 
letters 5^ .<)«• 

— 67 — 



f 



Woki.d\Vak John AValter bought the patent rights, iiuprovod the 
At Its tiovitv and set np as printer in Printing House square. 
Clim-\x -^* ^^*^^ ^^^' undertix^k only the printing of Ixx^ks. The 
printing of lux^ks by the ** Logographie '* pnxvss was not 
a suoeess. King George 111. to whom the invention was 
exhibited, was not moved to extend to it his patronage, 
ehietiy. as John AValter supposed, bei^iuse the name of 
Innijaniin Frankhn. tlien Ameriean Ambassador to 
Franee. appeaivd in the hst of supporters. 
Jolm Walter's bid for job-printing was destined to 
btvome a pioutXM- step in the printer's art. His interest 
in printing was inherited by his son Jolm Walter 11. 
who. educated at Meix^hant Taylor's Jv^hool and CHford 
and destined for Holy Carders, was taken into The Tin\es 
otlitv in Soventetm Hundivd Ninety-seven or Seventtxni 
Ilundnxl \inety-<Mght. and btvame the manager of the 
paper in FighteiMi Hundred Three. In Fighttxm Hun- 
divd Foiu" he gave eneouragement, in spite of opp(.x<ition 
from his printers, to Thomas ^lartyn. a workman in 
The Times otliee. who had invented an automatic press. 
In FighttXMi Hundred Ten John Walter 11 had to face 
a serious strike among his printers. It appeal's he was 
not an easy man to beat. At only a few hours' notice on 
a Saturday morning, the story runs. " iiaving colUvted 
a few apprentices from a half dozen ditferent quarters. 
and a few inferior workmen, anxious to obtain empU\v- 
ment on any terms, he determined to set a memorable 
example of what one man's energy can accomplish. For 
six-and-thirty houi*s he himself worked incessantly at 
ease and at press: and on Monday morning the com- 
positors who had assembled to triumph over his defeat, 
saw to their inexpressible astonishn\ent and dismay 
The Times issue from the hands of the publisher with 
the same regularity as ever." 

Like many another great undertaking. The Times was 
— t^8 — 



¥ 



not at tirst siuvossful. It was drastically iiulo[)Oiulont. ^VoKLD^VAR 
In Sovontoon lluiuiivd Kiiihty-nino John \Valtor 1 was At Its 
sontonood to pay a tine of fifty pounds, to undergo a (^^j^u^j^x 
year's imprisonment in Newgate, to stand in pillory for 
one hour, to give reeognizauees for his gooil behavior 
for seven years for sup[>t>sed libel of the King's son, the 
Duke c^f York. In his imprisonment he was tried for 
other libels, heavy tines were imposed with another 
year's imprist>nment, the otHee of printer of customs 
was taken frt>m him autl all government advertisements 
were withdrawn frt>m The Times and its foreign dis- 
patches seized. Notwithstamliug every oppression. The 
Times grew, and in John Walter ll's administra- 
tion its circulation stood at twenty-nine thousand 
while none of its competitors reached the five thou- 
sand mark. 

In Eighteen Hundred Forty a gigantic scheme of inter- 
national forgery originated in Paris. The Times spent 
twenty-tive thousauii dollars or five thousand pounds 
in dettvting it. London was so gratified it raised the 
money by subscription and repaid The Times. The 
event is conunenuMated by a tablet still over the 
entrance door to The Times office. John Walter refused 
to accept the money and employed it in founding free 
scholarships in famous Londt>n schools. 
In Nineteen Hundred Eight Eord Northclitfe became 
principal shareholder of The Times ami stamped his 
name upon the great newspaper which, down to then, 
had been unbrokenly in the Walter family. With his 
splendid newspaper equipment and vast wealth. Lord 
Northclitfe placed The 'Fimes upon a permanent and 
enduring hnancial iKisis. 

The most famous writers of Europe and men of action 
liave served in all the years on The Times. 
The late Mr. ^loberly Hell, manager of The Times t\>r 
— Ul) — 



World War iiiaiiy years, delighted to relate how he had once received 

At Its '^ letter from the superintendent of a lunatic asylum. 

Clim\x ^^^^^^ reference to one of the inmates. **As he has for 

'to many years been a subscriber to The Times." ran the 

^ concluding sentence. " I thought you would know that 

he was a lunatic." 



ro — 



CHAriKR XI 




St. Dunstan's 

In.s-fitiiic for the Blind — Founded bi/ Sir Arthur Peartion, Rich 
Magazine Puhlifther — Good Flown from. It. PupiU- are Taught 
Tradefi and Inspired to Be Cheerful and Uncomplaining of 

Their Lot. 

HURSDAY afternoon, October lOtli, 
was spent listening to an inspiring and 
patriotic address by Earl Grey, who 
had been silent for two years. He had 
been a pacifist, and as his views were 
not popular had retired from pul)lic 
life. '* The League of Nations " was the 
title of Karl (J rev's talk and he spoke to an innnense 
and ap[)reciative audience. He strongly ap[)roved of 
what was being done to win the war and expressed 
firndy his views upon the League of Nations. 
That evening a dinner was given for us at Hotel Savoy 
by the English Authors' Club with headcpiarters in 
London. Many of the world's great writers attended, 
among them. Sir Anthony Hope and E. Phillips Oppen- 
heim, judges and other leading otKcers of the British 
Government. There were no formal speeches but each 
person was asked to speak, sing or tell a story. It was a 
thoroughly enjoyable affair. 

Next (lay, Eriday, was fixed for a dinner given us by 
Rt. Honorable Arthur J. Balfour, president of the 
English-Speaking Union, account of which is given in a 



preceding chapter 

On Eridav afternoon. 



after 
-71 - 



our 



English-Speaking 



World War Union dinner, most of our party visited Saint Dunstan's 

At Its hospital for blind soldiers. The head of the institution 

Clim\x ^^^^ ^ ^ne, manly fellow, perhaps thirty years old, 

to totally blind. Many of the men were of splendid 

• physique. Cheerfulness was the first thing impressed 

upon their minds. They were not permitted to consider 

themselves deficient or unfortunate in any degree. They 

moved about with the aid of canes. Strips of linoleum 

ran through the rooms with carpets on either side. While 

they remained on the linoleum they did not bump into 

anything, but when they got onto the carpet they knew 

they were " oft' the road." 

Sir Arthur Pearson, founder of Pearson's ]Magazine, one 
of the great magazines of the world, himself blind from 
overwork, estabhshed Saint Dunstan's and conducted 
it at his own expense until the British Government 
decided it should take care of its own people who had 
lost their sight in war. Captain Fraser in charge of one 
of the leading departments of Saint Dunstan's lost the 
precious faculty of sight in gallant action in the great 
Battle of the Somme. 

It is simply marvelous what is taught to persons at 
Saint Dunstan's. Chickens, ducks and rabbits are bred 
and reared by the blind. Fish lines and netting are made 
in looms operated as dextrously as though the operators 
enjoyed vision. Swimming, tandem bicycling, crew 
rowing, (in the last named regattas are rowed) telephone 
and telegraph operating, typewriting, stenography, 
basket making and shoemaking are fields of activity. 
There is a department where massage is taught as a 
science &^ &^ 

Hundreds of graduates have gone out and established 
themselves and have become self-supporting. Their 
spirit and love for their alma mater is as great and 
genuine as that of the college graduate. 
— 72 — 



It is a splendid institution and a monument to its World War 
illustrious founder. At Its 

That evening the editors were the special guests of Climax 
Major Evelyn Wrench at the Cheshire Cheese, a quaint ^ 
old ale house where Boswell, Johnson and other literary ' 
lights held forth and many a brilliant battle of wits was 
fought over wine cup and ale mug. Little is changed. 
Memories of the past are in the air of the place and our 
entertainment there was genuine as well as unique. 



7,'i 



PART III 

Scotland 

Seeing the Great Fleet and Com- 
paring IT with Roosevelt's 
Around the World Armada 

Unhappy Mary Queen of Scots 

Carlisle's Attempt to Control 
Consumption of Liquor 



CHAPTER XII 



E^^ 


8 


1^^^ 


^S 



In Scotland's Capital 

Hi}^toric Npo/.v ivere Shown and Many Interesting Things ivere Told 
— Entertained in Good Old Scotch Fashion. 

FTER our most charming and perfect 
(lay at Sandringham, nightfall found 
us on the way to London, which we 
left late that evening for Edinburgh, 
Scotland 5<^ &^ 

To and from Scotland and to and from 
Sandringham we were struck by the 
api)arent fertility of English farms. Sheep, hog and 
cattle-raising go side by side with gardening. The wonder 
was how England can afford to use its rich lands for 
cattle, hog and sheep-growing when in New York State, 
with its hundreds of thousands of acres adapted espec- 
ially to sheep culture and worthless for anything else, 
sheep-raising has become a lost industry. Farm life in 
England seems ideal. All properties show thrift and 
intelligence of a high order both in cultivation and 
management. A prominent English farmer, who rode 
with us to Edinburgh, said that since war began nmch 
valuable land had been given over to stock raising, 
because of the scarcity of lielp it was impossible to work 
land for regular farm purposes. 

At Sandringham early in war, three hundred and 
seventy -five caretakers asked King George's permission 
to go into the fight. To this royalty assented and super- 
intendent of landscaping became captain of a 
company &^ &^ 

— 77 — 



WorldWak Almost in the bei^inuing of service at the front, their 

At Its entire company was either killed or so badly n\aimed 

Clim\x ^^'^^^^^"' '^^'^-^ '^^^^^ ^'-^ retnrn to work. With war still on only 

"J a dozen men were abont Sandringham at the time of our 

* visit there. 

Arriving in Kdinbnrgh at seven A. M., we were com- 
fortably quarteivd at the Great Xorthwestern Railway 
hotel, breakfasted and began immediately to stv the 
town, its wonderful citadel on a roeky pron\ontory. with 
its bloody history, going back to the Tenth Century 
where kingj; and qnetMis or aspirants to the throne were 
beheaded, where belligerent classes fought, where in a 
miserable little chan\ber "Mary Qutvn of Scots gave 
birth to James of S<.\>tland and afterward of England. 
passed the monument to Sir Walter Scott, the home of 
John Knox, and were driven to Holyrood Palace, where 
^lary Qutvn of Scots ivigned. 

Our automobiles were next whisked away into the coun- 
try tive miles to the birthplace and early home of 
Robert Louis Stevenson. A cousin of Robert Louis, tall, 
blonde, rosy cheeked, handsome, young, vivacious, 
drove one of our cai*s. She was acting as chautfeur in an 
etfort to do her bit. not. however, btvause of the mone- 
tary stipend, as her family is wealthy. 
Sir J. Lome ^lacLeod. the Lord rrmi^st. as mayors in 
Scotland are called, gave a dinner at night in the C\nuicil 
Chambers to which were bidden prominent otlicials. 
manufacturers, business men and men oi letters in 
Edinburgh and vicinity. The Lord Lrovcx^^t made a 
virile and impressive talk. Our chairman replied. The 
warmth and cordiality of our reception was a noticeable 
feature. As we were leaving the building the X.ovd 
Provost took my arm and. accompanying me to an 
elevator, remarked that he was an L-ishman. adding: 
" Poor. unhap]>y Ireland 1 (^ne of the regrets of my life 



i 



is tlia[ slio is n'l in this «i;ivnl war. I 'in sorry, so sorry. WokldWar 
SIic lias orrod i>riovoiisly ! " \r Its 

In proposing- the hoallli oi" the American gnosis, Provosl ('i^i^^x 
MacLood said thai, williin llu^ inonlli, ovciils had 
niarclu'd willi a rapid sirido. *' Tlio rcsnil ol' lliis world 
issnt' is now a nialtor of (vrlainly suhjcci, however, lo 
many (jnahficalions, carernl walclifnhuvss and con- 
tinued resohilion and pnri)ose. Tins \isi( would he a 
niosl valuahle means ol' eonsolidatiui;' I he lies helween 
the Iwo eonnlries. Tlie nnily and eomplele undersland- 
ing and eo-operalion of I he Kni;lish-sj)eakini;- peoi)les 
was necessary lor I he safely of I lie world. To ensure I he 
rei«;n of justice and fair dealini;- in all the relations of 
mankind, alike in the connnunity of nations as in the 
individual life, is our conunon [)ur])ose, and the highest 
purpose and trust and duly and obligation inn)osed 
ui)on the Knglish-speaking race. After four years of war, 
w(^ ho})e that lofly aims of our ])eople remain unabated. 
A clean peace and lasting sell lenient sought, nothing 
less will be accepted. We await the outcome with perfecl 
conlidence. Our visitors will lind here a triMnendous 
admiration for Ihe American people simple and unaf- 
fecled in its character for the allainments and produc- 
tion in every branch of industry, their strenuous and 
robust vitality, the practical etiuality of their citizen- 
ship and the hospilalily of their shores to all national- 
ities, lluMr deep moral fervor and their high ideals of 
human life and conduct. We deeply a[)preciale Ameri- 
ca's immense contributions in every respect, inexpres- 
sible indeed, and beyond a(le(|uate recognition and 
gratitude on our ])art. President Wilson is simply named 
lo render him sincere homage and to ])ay tribute to his 
sagacity, profundity, clear vision and inflexible will. 
The British p(M)ple have staked their existence against 
the forces of barbarism and l)rutalit>-. Afler pitiless 



^YoRLD^VAR slaughter, torture, devastation, outrage upon the weak. 

At Its the defenceless, and the oppressed on land and sea, 

Clim\x eternal justice must be vindicated by the Allies. Our 

b hope and purpose are that the liberties of mankind will 

^ be saved, and all the peoples of the earth free to work 

out their own salvation." 

Mr. Franklin P. Glass replied that members of our 
delegation felt at home in Scotland, as many of them 
had an abundance of Scottish blood in their veins. AVhat 
was doing in America today was the product of Scottish 
activity of blood and iron. AVoodrow Wilson came of 
Scottish blood on both sides. Some of them on the other 
side had had the idea that the people of Great Britain 
were rather cold and stitf. Perhaps on the other hand 
they misunderstood the Americans; but the delegation 
was delighted to find that the British people had dis- 
co\ered them in their true spirit. Americans were not 
altogether a nation of money-grabbers. They had their 
ideals and were today pouring out billions of treasure 
and thousands of lives in the determination that the 
world should recognize that these ideals were the true 
ones which (lod had jnit on earth to be followed by all 
men .^^ &^ 



80 



( HAPTER XIII 




Unhappy Mary Queen of Scots 

Editorial Band Finds Two Factions in Scotland, One Glorifying, 
the Other Caustically Censuritig Her — Her Charm and Loveli- 
ness, the Sorrow and Pathos of Her Life, Make Her One of the 
Outstanding Personalities in History. 

NE approaches Edinburgh happy in 
anticipation of viewing the Queen City 
of the British empire. One leaves Edin- 
burgh behind, somewhat saddened that 
regal beauty should ever have been 
marred by man. It was here in the 
sixteenth century that Mary Stuart, 
the hapless Mary Queen of Scots experienced distress 
and sutt'ering enough in six years to fill a lifetime and 
met cares that ended only at the executioner's block in 
London Tower; a woman of supreme beauty, but white- 
haired through sorrow at forty-five, her physical loveli- 
ness destroyed, but the memory of it preserved in the 
story of her fatal charms. 

A trip to Edinburgh becomes somehow a pilgrimage into 
the shadows that surrounded the unfortunate young 
queen with melancholy, relieved only by remembering 
the greatly out-balancing thought that her son's reign 
began the union of England and Scotland through three 
hundred happier years. 

In the Tower of London we were shown the place where 
she died in Fifteen Hundred Eightj^-seven, an outcome 
of a plot to assassinate her envious and masculine royal 
cousin, Elizabeth. There were few more poignant sor- 
— 81 — 



World War rows than her last hours describe, telling how she wrote 

At Its her will at night, divided her jewels among her servants, 

Climax ^^^ed their forgiveness if she had been wanting toward 

to them, dined moderately, slept calmly a few hours, rose 

• early and passed her time in devotion until the high 

sheriff came. 

A queen, serene in the reign of her highest realm, her- 
self, with calm aud undaunted fortitude she laid her 
neck on the block, and when the Dean of Peterboi-ough 
cried out after the execution, " So perish all Queen 
Elizabeth's enemies ! " only the Earl of Kent answered, 
"Amen! " And, according to the records, " the rest of 
the company were drowned in tears." 
At Edinburgh Castle our especial attention was called 
to Queen INIary's room, where she gave birth to James, 
forerunner of tlie present English line. By present day 
standards it is a mean room whose greatest length is 
barely eight feet. We were shown an oaken arm-chair 
where it was explained the princeling, who was to realize 
all his mother's claims, was first put into her arms. A 
block of wood beside the fireplace, hewn from a thorn 
tree planted by Mary at Loch Leven, now contains the 
date of his birth. 

As we looked from one of the great windows downward 
some two hundred feet and more, we saw the (irass- 
niarket, and " Kirk-o'-Field," where murdered Darnley 
lay, the father of the young prince, slain within a year 
of that momentous birth. 

Each side of the castle promontory, !250 feet below, 
swept waters that have rushed on to the sea in those 
same channels since before the time to which the strong- 
hold can l)e traced, back thirteen hundred years to the 
time of the conquest of the Picts by Edwin, Prince of 
Northumbria, and the naming of the town and the 
castle, Edwin's burgh. 

— 82 — 



Fatherless when only seven days old, fleeing in a fishing World War 
smack to France when scarcely six years old, married At Its 
at sixteen, proclaimed queen of France, Scotland and Clu^j^x 
England, widowed at eighteen, married again at twenty- ^ 
one, mother of a child of destiny at twenty-two, courted, * 
intrigued against, Mary Stuart was the pawn of malev- 
olent forces, rather than queen of even her own house- 
hold 5^ &^ 

Marvelous in beauty, brilliant in accomplishments, 
gentle and winning in manner, she was the logical object 
of hatred to the haughty, isolated Elizabeth, with her 
harsh, masculine manner and unpleasant personality, 
which were in striking contrast with the glowing beauty 
of her cousin. 

Still, on the chessboard of history on which they played 
their parts the unfavored Elizabeth became the queen, 
Mary the pawn. 

Unhappy in her home life, the queen sought in frank- 
ness and gayety with the persons of her household to 
make up for the lack of happiness elsewhere. From these 
apparently innocent diversions, cruel misinterpreta- 
tions, her admirers believe, were made and the darkest 
misery arose. 

The place is still shown where the hideous Rizzio died, 
cringing behind the fold of Mary's skirt, slashed by the 
daggers of assassins. 

Scotchmen who belong, or would belong to a faction in 
bitter opposition to Queen Mary were she still living, 
call your attention today to this event in her life and 
declare it proves that, instead of being the devout 
religionist her admirers claim, she was, on the contrary, 
to speak plainly, a royal wanton. 

David Rizzio and his brother, Joseph, had come from 
Piedmont with the ambassador to Mary's court and 
stayed on as confidant and secretary to the queen, 



World War arousing, by his constant attendance upon her, the 
At Its jealousy of Darnley and the resentment of the assassins. 
Climax ^^ Person of httle grace, he was nevertheless a skilled 
musician and linguist. He attended to the queen's cor- 
^^ respondence in French and was familiar with her affairs. 
^ She was holding a salon in Holyrood, her then regal 
residence, on the night of the murder, the Countess of 
Argyll, Rizzio and others being present, when Darnley 
entered by the door of a secret staircase into the apart- 
ment 5^ s^ 

How Darnley expiated this crime within a year, widow- 
ing Mary for the second time at twenty-five, is too 
familiar to need telling here. Just after Mary visited 
him, a small-pox patient in an isolated house, on the site 
of the present, splendid university buildings, he was 
found dead in his garden, his house blown up. 
After the death of Rizzio, Mary fled with Darnley to 
Dunbar, where she and her consort were received by 
Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. He was the master hand in 
the death of Darnley, and him Mary took as her third 
husband, within three months of Darnley 's death and 
immediately after he had obtained annulment of his 
marriage to Lady Jane Gordon. 

That was the end. Within sixty days she had abdicated 
in favor of her infant son, herself to become a prisoner 
at Loch Leven. soon to infatuate her young jailer and 
to escape and seek refuge with cousinly Elizabeth. 
And beautiful, talented, emotional Queen ]Mary deserves 
the sympathy, even the pity, of any who ever touches 
or becomes acquainted with anything that was of her. 



84 



CHAPTER XIV 



Glasg 




ow 

Seeing the Wonderful Great Fleet Which was the Big Holding Thing 
of the War — More Scottish Hospitality 

T Glasgow in City Chambers a dinner 
given for the editors was attended by 
prominent officials and titled and pro- 
fessional men of the city and neighbor- 
hood nuich the same as in Edinburgh. 
The Mayor of Glasgow, Lord Provost 
Stewart, proposing the health of the 
guests, paid tribute to the help America had given. 
Perhaps the greatest discovery Germany had made in 
this war, and the one which had ruthlessly shattered her 
mechanical calculations, had been the discovery of the 
American soul. What Scotchmen admired most was the 
moral strength of the great democratic and freedom- 
loving people in using their illimitable resources to pro- 
tect smaller nations. Sacrifices made by the gallant sons 
of America and the Allies would bind together English- 
speaking peoples throughout the world in closer bonds. 
"Auld Lang Syne," in which all joined, was sung with 
fervor and gusto. 

On the Clyde River, near Glasgow, at the great ship 
building plant of Boardman & Company, shipbuilders, 
aeroplane manufacturers and makers of other war equip- 
ment, eight thousand women were employed. It was at 
these works that the ill-fated Lusitania was fabricated. 
The Clyde a few years ago was a narrow, shallow 
stream, but by gigantic dredging it today is wide and 
— 85 — 



^VoKLD >Vak iloop and navigable for oooan-going boats. Lnnolioon 
At Its ^^^^*^ served in tlie great otiiees of the works, otHeers. 
Cloixx *'"U^^^\^'<^"^"'* '^1^^^ workwomen mingling in a happy meal 
' J> ^ Speeehes by members of snpervisiug forees of the 
^ works foUowed and employees i^who, a while before had 
been at work on heavy lathes'* put on an exeellent pro- 
gram of nnisie and siMig that WiUiUl ilo eredit lo the 
best emieert cnnnpany. 

Speaking of the etiieieney of winnen, the superintendent 
of the great plant said they rapidly beeanie expert in the 
use of mierometer gauges and were pronouneed even 
more etlieient than men. in some respeets. Sir William 
BairilnuM-e was the iirst industrial operator in (»reat 
Britain to have the audaeity to use women for these 
tasks. He said it was either women or no work, for the 
men were all in the war. He was delighted at the out- 
eome of his experiment, and remarkeil that hundreds 
of thousands of women were later employed in all sorts 
of numition work in (ireat Britain, and they had made 
possible the Empire's etiieieney in war. 
Next day, Tuesday, was set aside for a visit to the great 
fleet in the Firth of Forth. AVe were put aboard a yaeht 
and had luneh on the Colossus. As there was intluenza 
aboard the flagship, where we were to have Innehed, the 
eonunodore deeided not to take the risk of exposing us. 
He eame onto the Colossus and shook hands, but would 
not remain, as he deelared it would n't be fair to us. 
There were five United States men-o'-war when we 
arrived, and we were to have had tea on board one of 
them. Albeit an hour after our arrival, all ti\e boats put 
out to sea on some mysterious erraml. 
Among the international throng whieh saw our Ameri- 
ean tleet sweep majestieally down Hampden Roads to 
Old Point Comfort tHi AVashington's birthday. Nineteen 
Hundretl Twelve, 1 stood transfixed at that nuirvellous 
— 8(i — 



sijjjhl of power aiul glory. It sooinod lo luo IIkmi as it" World War 
nothing on tlio seas in all the world was mighty enough \'p 1'^^^ 
to withstand il. Yet there were only twenty-seven battle d^ij^j/vx 
shi[)s, as 1 reeall, while here were between three hundred ^ ' 
and three hundred fifty such ships, to say nothing of ' 
smaller boats such as destroyers, cruisers, colliers and 
sub-chasers which outmnnlxM-ed the moiislcM- nicn-o'- 
war two to one. 

Nothing in the whole Irij) impivssed our parly so pro- 
foundly as that mighty licet. Looking u[) the Kirlli of 
Forth as far as the eye could carry, these giani masters 
of the sea were limned against the horizon. Then we 
undei stood that it was this marvelous fleet, every ship 
of which was known to the Kaiser, which made (lermany 
hesitate &^ ,^^ 

It, beyond all (juestion, was the bulwark which, even 
when (lermany a})parently was winning on land, stood 
like a mannnolh spectre in the background. No one any 
longer doubted that this stupendous armada was the 
holding thing of the war. 

(lermany understood its size and knew the weight of its 
power. We of the United States had access to statistics, 
but few people knew where to look for them, or if they 
did, could form not the least impression of their respect- 
ive sizes or comparative power. Without England's 
shi})s, America could not have been in the war, as it 
would have been im])ossible lo transport troops in any 
other bottoms. Without American soldiers, (lermany 
would on that day be in or near Paris and up at least 
to the Channel ports of Knglaiid. No one of our party 
had hitherto dreamed of the material work done by 
(Ireat Britain, of the blood and tears shed which at 
length and forever had ended so ignominiously for 
(lermany ^^ s^ 

On the following day we went to the wonderful works 
— 87 — 



World War at Gretna, where twelve thousand girls and women 

At Its were employed in making fuses or cordite. We lunched 

Clim\x ^^ ^^^^ office of the great works. There are one thousand 

to separate buildings, said to have cost more than one 

^ hundred million dollars. As in the Clyde shops the 

women and girls were good looking, well housed and fed. 

A large hall suitable for dancing and entertainments of 

all sorts was built for them. There was considerable 

talent among them, and theatricals, concerts and other 

forms of amusement were features. There was a splendid 

hospital fully equipped in every way. Explosions were 

common in the works despite every possible precaution 

taken to prevent them. 

On our way back to Carlisle we stopped at the old 
blacksmith shop in Gretna Green where the marrying 
blacksmith united in wedlock so many runaway couples, 
the romance of which has been read the world over. 



CHAPTER XV 




A Carlisle Experiment 

How England was Trying to Solve the Drink Problem and was 
Appareyitly Greatly Pleased. 

O us of America, where prohibition is 
now a law, if not an absolute fact, 
Great Britain's method of controlling 
the drinking of alcoholic beverages in 
war times as shown by experiment at 
Carlisle remains an interesting study. 
It impressed me as a very wise method; 
certainly the results proved it so. 

From the feudal times of wassail to the present, Great 
Britain has been a drinking nation. It drank as a matter 
of course, just as it ate roast beef. English literature is 
permeated with drinking. The old English tales tell of 
the brews, the drinking parties, the merry times. 
Dickens' stories, you will remember, were enlivened with 
the atmosphere of strong drink or of light drink like 
beer, and when Micawber made punch one could smell 
it and see the steam rising from the bowl. Dickens wrote 
of the times that he knew and he knew them well. Other 
writers have shown us how much a part of life the 
whiskey and soda was to the higher class Englishman, 
while the workingman regaled himself with ale and beer. 
^ I have cited all this merely to show the contrast 
between Merrie England and England at war. 
Great Britain did not attempt to make prohibition 
effective in the war. It was not radical. It realized that 
sobriety or at least greater temperance was necessary, 
— 89 — 



World War but it realized also that the Briton does not like to be 

At Its stinted too much. So it went about the movement to 

Climax reduce drinking in what proved to be a wise and effective 

fe manner. It did not prohibit; it reduced. In other words, 

* it rationed the drinking in the United Kingdom. It was 

a part of the win-the-war purpose, and the British took 

it as a matter of course, just as they had taken their 

drinking, just as the average Englishman takes almost 

everything in life. 

The war became a matter of course, and anything that 
would aid in winning the war was a matter of course. 
The government reduced the number of hours for sale 
of liquor from about 17 hours a day to five and a half 
hours. That did not result, as many might think, in 
the British trying to drink as much in five and a half 
hours as they had drunk in 17 hours. 
The government forbade selling drinks on credit. There 
was no longer a score at the public house or " pub." 
Treating was prohibited. A man bought his beer, paid 
for it and drank it. He did not have to drink again in 
pursuance of the old custom of " treating back." That 
was a good rule. 

Only three hours at night were the drinking places per- 
mitted to be open, and the other two hours and a half 
permitted were at midday. 

Moreover, the alcoholic content of drinks was reduced. 
Much of " the kick," as we call it in street parlance, was 
taken out. The British public, as I have said, took all 
this as a matter of course. 

The government's effort was not to stop drinking, but 
to stop drunkenness, and it succeeded to an amazing 
extent &^ 5©» 

In the year preceding the war the number of deaths 

from alcoholism was more than eighteen hundred and 

in Nineteen Hundred Seventeen the number was re- 

— 90 — 



duced to less than six hundred, a reduction of sixty-six World War 
and two-thirds per cent. At Its 

There were less than one hundred cases of delirium Clj^^x 
tremens reported in Nineteen Hundred Seventeen as ^ 
compared with more than five hundred in Nineteen ' 
Hundred Thirteen, the year before the war, surely a 
satisfying proof of the success of the government's 
methods ^ a®* 

The number of suicides and attempted suicides traced 
to excessive drinking was reduced by considerably more 
than fifty per cent. 

Arrests for intoxication from nearly thirty -five hundred 
each week dropped to about six hundred. 
The British government did more however than merely 
ration drinkables. The government through its Board of 
Control practically took over the management of liquor 
selling. It instituted reforms. It cleaned up certain places 
that needed cleaning up. 

I think that the government's action at two great muni- 
tion centers was one of the most successful and exem- 
plar}^ to cite, as it shows what a government could do in 
the way of controlling drinking and the sale of liquor in a 
non-prohibition country. To me it seemed a remarkable 
demonstration of control of a very difficult problem, 
control which left the people themselves in full posses- 
sion of their " personal liberties," a term which we often 
make use of in this country. 

It is not a simple matter to deal with a problem of this 
kind in a section where thousands and thousands of 
workers feel that they must have their stimulant. Habit 
is a strong master. 

The experiment was at Carlisle, England, and at Gretna 
Green, just across the border in Scotland, the Gretna 
Green of romance. Carlisle was more difficult than 
Gretna. It had mam^ public houses, too many, and these 
— 91 — 



AVokldWak \vero in lively ooinpotition for the tnuio oi tho tlunisaiuls 

At Its *-^^ workei*s in tho nnniitions plants. 

CiiM\x ^ *^^^^'^^i^i*^^^^^ ^^■«^'^"^' ^^'^'^^- Intoxication was fivquont. Thort^ 

were tights and scandals. Aside from the questions of 

*^ welfare and deivncy, the condition was interfering with 

the ethciency of the workers and theivfoiv of the work 

of winning the war. 

The Uritish governnieut assumed direct control of the 
sale of liquor there and it designated a very able othcer 
who for years was in the police court at Liverpool as clerk 
and afterward magistrate to take full charge and to 
clean up Carlisle. A'irtually the British government took 
up the Inisiuess of supplying liquor in Carlisle. It went 
about it too in a perftvtly businesslike way. It bought 
the one hundred twenty, in round numbers, public 
houses at Carlisle. 

The owners of these places could not complain that the 
government had not resptvted their rights as owners. 
Purchase of the public houses was only a beginning. The 
government set about reducing the numbers from one 
hundred twenty to about seventy as 1 recall the tigures. 
The government bought the breweries, four in number 
and used one only to make the beer sold in C arlisle. 
It went further in cleaning up Carlisle. It put women in 
charge of the public houses and wcunen served 
beer .<i^ .<i^ 

The drunkenness and the tight ing were no more. The 
workers drank their beer with meals and were quiet and 
orderly. It turned the public houses, which had been 
mostly for drinking purposes only, into taverns or 
eating places. The bars were abolished. To drink one 
must eat. l>eer was served only at tables with sand- 
wiches or with other food. The government realized 
that if one eats he does not drink so nuich. 
The result was remarkable. The '* pubs " were like 
— iH — 



rjuuily phicvs. TIkmv was coiiiparalivoly little driiikinj;-. World War 

All tlu' lr()iil)los IJiat had boon, (vasod to ho. Carlisle ^rj j,j.g 

was a (lilVereiil place. Tlie ^ovenmieiil had succeeded (Climax 

and moreover the people alVected were happy and sal is- ^ 

tied .<5«^ .<i©» * 

Moreover, the «»;overnmeiit's opeialioii of the public 

houses was done at a ])rofil. It was uol uierely i>()od 

|)olicy, it was good business. 

It should be uieutioued that sales of sj)irils to be drunk 

away from the j)remises were forbidden on Saturdays, 

so there could be no week-end drunkenness. 

As 1 recall the methods of the British government at 

(^arlisle and elstnvhere it occurs to me thai |)erhaps 

[)rohibilion would not have come to this country, as 

early as it did, if these same methods had been em- 

j)loyed in America in peace limes. 1 am nol holdinj;- a 

brief for I he sale of li(|uor in America. I am merely |)oint- 

ingoul Ihal if this oovernmenl, all <;overnmeTds in fact, 

had handled at all times the li(|uor prol)lem as Kngland 

handled it in times of war, the drink evil would never 

have been what it became. 

Knj;lan(rs control of li(|Uor selling during the war surely 

[)roved that the use of alcoholic beverages could be 

regulated in such a way as to reduce to a mininunn the 

evils resulting from such use. I repeat this not as an 

argument, but merely topoiiUout what all governments 

might have done years ago. 

AN EXPLANATfON 

Misgivings and trepidations characleri/ed a. meeting 
at head(iuarters in London to discuss a tri]) into 
Ireland for a study of all aspects of the Irish (luestioii. 
Many of our i)arly, who in former European travels 
had visited the Emerald Isle, believed time could 
be used to better advantage elsewhere. A few dreaded 
— }).'J — 



C LIAIAX 



\VoKLD ^VAK the trip, saying tlioy were roiniiulod of Mark Twain's 
At Its f^nnoiis utterance : " liernuuia's heaven, but it's liell to 
get there." Both Irish and Knghsh channels art^ noted 
for tlieir roughness. Added to this, the Leiuster had a 
* short time before btvn subniarint\i and sunk in crossing 
to Dubhn. Then, it had beini planned that the magazine 
group prtxvding us visit Ireland, but it had. for reasons 
best kuoNvn to itself, given up the journey. A few of us 
toi^k the position that weiv we not to go oin* motives 
might be impugned and our l>ritish hosts cvusured and 
charged with bad faith. Fear was expressed that as we 
were guests of Cireat Britain the latter might be thought 
to control our actions and movements. Indtxxl. that was 
the Irish interpretation of the magazhie men's failuiv 
to go over. Major Malone. an Irish soldier in British 
service, who. bei^uise of his knowledge of Irish atfairs. 
was assigned to accompany us. was called into consulta- 
tion and the situation discussed in every detail. It was 
explained that all of us had thousands of ivadei-s, Irish 
or of Irish extraction and that we did not caiv to go back 
and face them with the fact that we had an opportunity 
to study, tirst hand, Ireland's problems and were so 
utterly inditfeivut as not to avail oui*selves of it. 
Then the acting head of the "Ministry of Information 
Avas called in and all matters were again fully gone 
over .«^ .^^ 

"We were retold that the Ministry of Information had 
deluded not to attempt to dictate nor in any way 
intiuence us; that not only had it planned for us a tour 
of Kngland but had sent us to Scotland, loancti us. as 
it were, to France and Belgium and Ireland. While 
England did not wish to impose further hardships upon 
us.^j(,our trip having Ihxmi exctvdingly strenuous up to 
thispoint"* nevertheless she would be inunei\sely pleased 
were we to go over to Ireland and look frankly and fully 
— }U — 



upon holli sides of llio Irish (iiicslion. Il would ivliovo VVowi.i) War 

hov of wlial she rcjjjjirdod as unjust censure on tlie pari At Its 

of Ireland, ami our })arly, of the erilieisuj thai il was (^,^,[y,^x 
under Hrilish influenee because (Ireal Hrilain was nieel- 



uii;" our e\|)enses. 

The nieelinj;" ended in our resoKing lo make I he journey. 



I 



!»» 



PART IV 

I 

Ireland 
Getting a Slant on Sinn Feiners 

AND UlSTERITES 

VisiTiNC. Seats op Antagonistic Par- 
ties, Dublin and Belfast 



Changes that Have Been Wrought 
IN Three Years 



("IIAPTI^R XV 




The Ulster Viewpoint 

A Two-Day Study at Beljast oj the Opposition Party in Ireland — 
Feeling Against Southern Ireland Found Very Tense and Bitter. 

() hellcM- cliapler can l)e written now 
upon lllsl(M-'s views tlian a ('()nij)()site 
ailicle produced by tlie Editorial party 
wliile in I5elfast and which, among 
oilier newspapers, was printed in The 
Herald at that time. It read: 
"An allemi)l was made l)y the Ameri- 
lo study I he Irish (piestion on Irish soil. 
They made a visit to Belfast, the stronghold of IJLster- 
ism, and iuterviewed representatives of all classes, 
official and unollicijd, cjipital and labor, em])loyer and 
em})loyee, and t hey heard t he cause of free and independ- 
ent Ireljuid pleaded hy the bellicose generals and caj)- 
tains of Sinn Feiuism. The Ulster view is presented in 
this letter. 

" Broadly, Ulster represents imperial Britain; Sinn Fein 
is now the voice and arm of militant Ireland. The Ulster 
movement, four years or more ago, was a ])rotest against 
home rule. It was outright secession against the pro- 
posed constitutional sepjiration of Ireland. It was a 
Ihreatened war upon England, having as its provoca- 
tion and basis the proposal that there be a political 
secession from (ireat Britain. Altogether it was an 
anomaly, an anachronism. Just think, for example, of a 
sovereign state in the American republic resorting to 
arms in defiance of a federal project to exclude it from 
— DO — 



AVorldAVak the I'nion. Yot lister planned to tight the British 
At Its empire to preserve its sovereign rights to be ami remain 
Clim\x ^^^^ integral part of the British empire. 

* "J '* lister is Protestant and essentially British, while the 
^ rest of Ireland is C\\tholie and intrinsieally Irish. It is 
not intended to say that the controversy is religions or 
sectarian: Init certainly the Clunvh fnrnishes the back- 
ground of the entire trouble. Yon will hear in Ireland, 
from Irish and Catholic witnesses, that the greatest of 
Irish patriots have been Protestant; and that the Irish 
revolution of Seventeen Hundred Ninety-eight had its 
origin with Protestants. Unquestionably, many of the 
supporters of Irish Xationalism today are non-Catholic: 
and others of the supporters of the empire, foes of sepa- 
ration and home rule, are Catholic. But Ireland outside 
of Ulster is overwhelmingly Catholic, and lister, at 
least Belfast, which furnishes a big slice of Ulster's 
population, is strongly Protestant: and the geographical 
cleavage is very nearly identical with the sectarian line. 
AVhether or not it is a coincidence may be a matter of 
opinion. That it is a fact will be everywhere in Creat 
Britain conceded. But that the Church as an organiza- 
tion is responsible for the constant agitation of the Irish 
question is not generally charged. 1 believe, even in 
Ulster. A reasonable explanation is that it follows rather 
than leads in political atl'airs. Its faithful adherence to 
such a policy may be one secret of its pmverful hold on 
the majority of the Irish people. 

"* The case of Ulster is substantially that it has pros- 
pered under British laws and rule, and that it has no 
coiihdence in an independent Ireland controlled from 
Dublin. It is opposed to home rule — unless indeed 
Ulster shall be excluded from its operation — and it is 
opposed to separation. It wants to be let alone. Belfast 
is the most active, populous and prosperous city in the 
— 100 — 



islaiuL ll [)()iiils proudly lo llio fjicl thai it has live of World War 

I lie <;rcalcsl iiiduslrios of llicir kind in I ho world — linen, At Its 

lohacco, vo]H\ ship-huildin^, collon that it has three (Climax 

and onc-lialf lin\es more sliipi)in^ than the rest of Ire- ^ 

land, b'roni I lie lime of I he Act of Tnion (lii<;hleen I Inn- ^ 

dred) until Ki,t;hte(Mi Hundred Nin(My-oue, Belfast nnd- 

liplied its |)opulalion Ihirleen and one-half limes a. 

record willioul a parallel in the llniled Kin<;(lom. Ulster 

elaims that it |)roduees forly-ei^hl per cent of all Irish 

oals, forty-one |)er eeni of potatoes, iifly-lhree per eenl 

of fruit and niiuMy-nine |)er cent, of (lax, and i)ays in 

enslomsand revenue nearly twenty-five million i)onn(ls, 

or more than twiee the remainder of Ireland. 

" It is not easy for the American to note with nneoneern 

the em])loyment anywhere of youn<>' boys and girls in 

j;real numbers, at hard labor, and under conditions 

that do not appear to guarantee either their health or 

their pr(){)er education. In the nnmitions factories of 

Kngland there are many thousand wouumi. 

It is unavoidable and care seems to have been taken 
to safeguard (hem in every j)ra('lical way. Hut it is not 
at all cK^ar that child labor is jusliiiable, in the way it 
is used al Belfast. At the linen mill, young l)oys were 
used as the operatives of great machines, and in the 
tobacco works the majority of the workers were boys 
and girls mostly the latter. It is said that none under 
fourteen is employed. There were many who appeared to 
be not nmch over that tender age. There were hundreds 
an<l even thousands who were too young to be kept out 
of school, and whose chances of an education, and there- 
fore of a life worth while, were surely greatly liani])ered 
by the exacting grind to which they were subjected. 
Probably it will l)e said that they are not recpiired to 
work every day. Indeed, it was said at Belfast. Hut 
many of them nnciuestionably do and few of them lookcnl 
— 101 — 



WoKipWvK a> if thoy had any opportunity for play, or rational 
A r I vs rtVTxwtion of any kind, suoh as is the riiiht of o\ ory ohiUi. 
C^iM\x ^ '* ^ l^i^^^ labor has no phuv. appaiXMitly. in any oon- 
5^ sidonition of tho Irish qviostion in Irt^land. Thon^ is no 
^ thouirht in Oublin. for o\an\pU\ of ivniplaint that Hol- 
fast's prxx'ipority is n\aintainod in iriw^t part by bo> and 
girl labor; for Onblin itself has n\a do no sptvial proi;rc\«<s 
in holpfnl and hnniano sorvi^v to the youuiior gonora- 
tion. Onblin has its shuns, and thoy aiv no oivdit tv> 
that oity. l^\tor. however, in a stroll thivngh the baek 
strtvts of Liver^Hvl. squalor, tilth and wivtehed liviui: 
eonditions I Nvitnessed s^HMued to me to be far niort" 
iieneral than in Publin. A welfart^ worker appeannl befori^ 
the editors at Oublin. and i^ave a deseription of life 
anioui: the pixtr in the Irish eapital that somewhat ilis- 
turbed them. He wanted their help to get a nieagn^ 
five thousand dollars out of the imperial iiovernment to 
earry on uplift work among the nun\erons ignorant boys 
and yoiuig men of Oublin. HundriMs of them, he said. 
iHHild not Rwd even the head-lines of the papei-s they 
sold in the strtvts. 

*' The prt\«ient status of home rule in Irelauii is that the 
Uritish Tarliament. under the pivmiership of Mr. 
Asquith. passed a bill giving the Irish a eertain measure 
of autonon\y. with a home legislative Knly. having 
eertain limiteii powei's over taxation. The objix'tions of 
lister weiv vehen\ent. not to say violent, and it was 
then arranged to exelnde six eounties of tliat province. 
Hut it was a settlement that did not settle anything, 
and tinall> Mr. l.loyii Cii\>rge. not then pren\ier. to 
whom had Ihvu referred the problem for si>lution. 
devised an Irish eonvention. whieh was to determine 
for itself just what Irx^land wanted. The inauguration of 
liome rule was indetinitely postponed, pending action 
by the ooun entiiMi; and theiv was an implied pledge 



lli.U I lie ^ovrniiiiciil woiiM ju'ccj)! ;i,iiy Jidjiisl inciil I lie WowldWak 
corivcnlioii wns ;i,l)l<' lo iii:i,k('. Il, wns ;iji ('rilircly sjiicr y\',. 1,^ 
|)r<)iiiis<', wliJilcvcr llu- ronvciilioii did or r;i,il<'d lo do, r',,»,-.v 

r I I I ' I I • • I !• I , . , » I i I M A A 

lor il ,i\)\)r;ivrt\ Irnc IIkiI iMi^latid is sick ol IIk^ Irish r, 
<|iic.sli(ni ;ijid will ajji^vcc lo Jiiiylliiii^ llijil liids fjiir lo ' 
;^<'l il oiil of llic w;i,y. 

" TIh' (•oiiv<'mI ioii, ill wliicli [Ilsl«'r vvilli some nliicljuicc 
:i,^rc«'d lo pnri icipjilc, slsirlcd oiil willi lii;^li rxjx'cl;!,- 
lioiis. \Ui\ ^,\\'\^'V ci/^lil loii/i; inoiillis ol' d<'lil)cr;i,l ion ;i,nd 
ilisji.^rccMKMil , il ciidcil Iriiil Icssly. lis cliicf |>olil ic;i,l 
rcsiill s('<*ins lo liavc l)('<*ii lo pn-cipilnlc llic N;i,lion;i,l 
(Irisli) pJirly in liopclcss wreck. Tlic lender w;i,s I lie l;i,l<' 
.lolin l{c<Jinoiid, who wns si iiieinher ol* llie conv<'nlion. 
1 1 ;ipp<;i,rs lo he cle;i,r lli;i,l Mr. Kcdinond soii/^hl 
<Nt,riieslly jiiid hoperiiliy lo find soiim- way lo reconcile 
:dl eonliielin^ inlcresls and fad ions. His l(ni|)er was 
always so reasonable and his rairness so maniresi. Dial 
an nisler dele^ale piiMicly paid lril)ul,(^ lo liini, saying: 
i am convinced liial he had an hon(\sl and ^eiiuiiK' 
inh'iilion of holding oiil I he olive hranch, arid suh- 
niillin^ such nioderalc dema,ii<ls as mi^hl have jiislified 
I he lilslcr dele^alcs in consnllin^ I heir eonslilnenis 
rej^ardin^ llieni.' This was a, ^real concession lor any 
(Ilslerile lo make. 

Mr. Kcdniond enlered inio an airan;4<'iiicnl willi Lord 
Middk'lon and his parly lo proniolc a, plan ol" Irish 
aiilononiy, willi a, ^overnnienl having conlrol of excise 
and olher sources of revenue, hiil nol ol" cuslonis. The 
lllslcr dele^alcs had made il plain llial under no cir- 
cnmsla-ne(^s arid I'or no eorisideraliori, would I hey lia,ve 
anylhin^ lo do willi pr-o|)osa,ls which irivolv(;d esl;if>lish- 
nienl ol" an Irish parlianienl, willi ph^nary aiil.horily 
over eiisloms arid excis(^ N(;verl.llel(^ss, l\\o, R(*dmorid- 
Middlelori coalilion ai)p<;;ir<Mi to Ix^ in a rnajorily, and 
I he prospecl ol" an a^r'f^erruinl. on I heir proposilion was 
— 103 — 



World War auspicious. But the radicals, under Bishop McDonnell, 
At Its ^ very able prelate, got busy during a recess of the con- 
Cli]M\x ^^cntion, and converted a minority into a majority by 
to their appeals to the country, and the Redmond-Middle- 
* ton plan was defeated. Lord INliddleton then joined 
Bishop McDonnell in a proposal to set up an independ- 
ent parliament in Ireland, with the single reservation 
that the question of customs and excise should be held 
in abeyance till after the war. This was the official action 
of the convention, by a very narrow majority. But in 
fact the delegates departed with thoughts and ideas as 
fixed and diverse as when they entered; and no one now 
assumes that the slightest attention will be paid by 
Parliament to its action. 

"At the ship-building plant of Workman, Clark & 
Company, Ltd., a number of workers had been assem- 
bled to give the editors their views of home rule or 
Irish independence. It was an interesting performance. 
Each of the men, representing the various unionized 
trades in the establishment, gave evidence of his im- 
placable opposition to a separate government for Ire- 
land. One of them made a set address, distinguished by 
a certain rough eloquence, that made a distinct impres- 
sion on his hearers. The men declared they were con- 
tented with their lot, and had no political grievances 
which could be adjusted by Dublin. They believed that 
Irish government meant the death of industry in Bel- 
fast, for it would precipitate an era of onerous taxation 
and special discrimination against LTlster. 
" Capital would have no recourse but to seek new 
fields, and what could labor do but move also? Their 
true allegiance was to Great Britain. The trades unions 
to which they belonged were British and they had bene- 
fited much by their policies. If they were to be cut off 
from them, they were sure they would have far less 
— 104 — 



protection as union men; and therefore in their own World War 
interest, they desired to maintain the British connec- At Its 
tion ^50- , . , ^ Climax 

" Tliey prochiimed then* complete sympathy with Great ^ 
Britain in the war, and unhesitatingly said that Ireland ' 
elsewhere was not so loyal. 

" It is given out in Belfast as a fact that Ulster has con- 
tributed to the British army during the war, fifty-nine 
thousand recruits, while the combined total of all the 
other provinces of Ireland is fifty-one thousand seven 
hundred. The city of Belfast, with a population of 
403,000 has furnished more soldiers than Connaught, 
Munster and Leinster, (excluding Dublin) with 2,0()(>,- 
000 population. The percentages of males of military 
age who have enlisted are: Ulster 33.8; Leinster 17.7; 
Munster 11.7; Connaught 4.9. In a recent war loan 
Belfast contributed £25,000,000, or about 85 per cent 
of the total for Ireland. 

" It is said that when conscription was abandoned, in 
consequence of the great furore in Ireland, a promise 
was made that Ireland would furnish at least 50,000 
volunteers. But 10,000 was the maximum to be attained. 
<i " The other day in Parliament, T. P. O'Connor, the 
veteran Home Ruler, introduced a resolution that ' It 
is essential that, before the British government take 
any part in any proceeding for the resettlement of 
Europe on the conclusion of peace, the Irish cjuestion 
should be settled in accordance with the principles laid 
down by President Wilson.' A spirited debate followed, 
in which all the old ground of England's bad faith with 
Ireland was surveyed, and the demand was made that 
autonomy be granted. Mr. Asquith, the ex-premier, 
supported the proposal, which was strongly opposed by 
Bonar Law, for the government. Bonar Law openly 
declared that it was nothing but a bold scheme to 
— 105 — 



^VoRLD^VAK exchulo (iroat Britain from the poaoo coiiforonco. Inci- 
At Its dontally, lio charged John Dillon, the Irish leader, with 
Clim\x li'^'^'i^^fi" hoasted that he had taken no part in any 
to recrnitinii- campaign — an accnsation which ]Mr. Dillon 
^ lieatedly denied; bnt Bonar Law refused to recede. 
*' Altogether the debate gave an interesting side light on 
the whole Irish question. On the one hand the govern- 
ment is obviously ho})eless about any satisfactory result, 
and does not intend to try to etl'ect it now. Only a day 
or two since Lloyd Cieorge, in a public letter supporting 
further coalition between the Liberals and Conservatives 
in the coming election, definitely said: * I can support 
no settlement of the Irish question which would involve 
the forcible coercion of lister.' So Lister has won. 
** On the other hand, the Irish Nationalists, who seem 
to have been all but leaderless since the death of John 
Redmond (^who is said to have literally broken his heart 
over his failure in Irish convention) are discredited at 
home, and most of them have no hope of re-election. 
They are fighting for a lost cause, and they know it. 
The Sinn Feiners have the upper hand, and the Nation- 
alists will soon no doubt cease for the present to func- 
tion as a party."' 



— 106 



CHAPTER XVII 



Sinn Fein 




Verbatim Report of a meeting with that party — A Frank Admis- 
sion on the Part oj Sinn Feinern that they imre Helped by (Ger- 
many but still were not Pro-Germans. 

11 K Sinn Fciiiers are the doniinant, 
|)()liti('a! force in Ireland today. It is 
I lie newest phase of the ever changing 
cycl(^ of pul)hc events here. It is a 
young man's movement, with the fire 
and in(hscretion of youtli. It lias set 
dde the ohl leaders, alisorhed their 
following and emljarked boldly upon a course which is 
designed to lead to absolute separation from the British 
emj)ire d^ 5o» 

In(le})endence and a distinct national existence is the 
Sinn Fein goal. There is no disguise about it; nor is there 
concealment of their scheme of outriglit rebellion, which 
is to be the final alternative' if other plans fail. They say 
that any })ossibIe ho{)e of constitutional reform may as 
well be abandoned, in view of the failure of all [>arlia- 
nientary jncjisures, and they openly flout home rule or 
colonial government, or any otiier proj)osal which would 
hold Ireland as an integral unit of the British empire. 
Tliey are not British, nor Scottish, they say. They are 
Irish 5<^ oo> 

Ireland was a distinct race, witfi the full attribute of 
nationhood, l)efore England was; and of right they 
should and must be free. Their chief present reliance for 
independence, or separation, as it is commonly called 
— 107 — 



i 



World ^YAR here, is the forthcoming peace conference, which is com- 
At Its mitted in advance, through acceptance by all nations 
Climax ^^ *^^^ fourteen declarations, to the principle that small 
peoples have the right of self-determination. 
It is the Wilson idea. That is where the Sinn Feiners got 
it. If the peace conference rejects their pleas — well, they 
will carry on the war in ways they are not ready to 
define or divulge. And they will make, as their fathers 
made before them, so they say, all necessary sacrifices 
in life and blood until the great end shall be achieved. 
What matter a few thousand lives of patriotic and 
zealous Irishmen now or later? 

The visiting American editors saw the Sinn Feiners in 
Dublin. They had announced in passing through the 
Irish capital on their way to Belfast that they would 
return and they would be pleased to hear what the Sinn 
Feiners and any others might have to say on the Irish 
question. The leaders of the Sinn Fein were not slow to 
take advantage of the o[)])ort unity. They saw, doubt- 
less, a way to spread their propaganda in America, and 
to correct what they thought were certain misappre- 
hensions as to their motives, methods and ultimate 
aims ,">«» &^ 

A half dozen or more of them came at the appointed 
time, in a waiting-room at a large Dublin hotel. Not 
one of them appeared to be more than thirty-five years 
of age. They were collectively an alert-looking, keen- 
minded and neatly dressed lot of Irishmen, and indi- 
vidually they were educated, fluent, aggressive and 
candid. They did not appear to be the stuft' of which 
martyrs are made, though they evidently were; and 
they were likewise far removed from the type of low- 
browed, rough-necked and quarrelsome hooligans that 
represents the doctrine of force and terrorism which 
has its exponents in Ireland. They were altogether a 
— 108 — 



presentable group of men who knew exactly what they World War 
wanted, and were not afraid to say so. At Its 

The interview began with a statement by one of them, Ch^ax 
an officer of the Sinn Fein, as to the historic grievances ^ 
and present wrongs of Ireland. For seven hundred years ' 
Ireland had suffered the abuses and oppressi(ms of 
England and it still retained its unconquerable soul and 
it never would consent to be rided by the tyrant. There 
was a great deal more like it. 

" Let us all agree," said one of the editors, " that every- 
thing you say is true about the past and that Ireland 
has suffered much from England's misgovernment. 
What about the situation today? " 

" There is no intrinsic change now in England's posi- 
tion toward Ireland," was the answer. " We are un- 
justly taxed. We are denied our rights. We have no such 
thing as free speech or individual liberty. W^e are thrown 
into prison by the hundreds for such trifling misde- 
meanors as the singing of a song which England does 
not like. The Irish coast is a fortress and the island 
is a mere garrison for two hundred thousand British 
soldiers &^ 5«» 

" We are denied education for our children. We are im- 
poverished and miserable. W^e have declined in popu- 
lation, for example from more than eight million to a 
little more than four million. Our industries languish 
through discriminations of many kinds. We do not get 
justice in the courts. Not long since there was a brutal 
murder in one of our towns. The keeper of a public 
house had kicked to death an inoffensive woman, with 
no provocation. He was tried and found guilty and the 
judge, appointed by the Oown, sentenced him to 
imprisonment for twelve months, saying that he was a 
loyal citizen, for he had served the empire well by 
zealous service in procuring recruits for the army." 
— 109 — 



C i.niAX 



Wohi.dWak *" ^Mlat is the reason Ireland lias uiven so few soldiers 
At Its to the l>ritisii army? "' 

*' Invanse we are not British. \Ve are not tree men. ^^e 
are slaves or bnt little better. \Vhy shonld we tiuht to 
^ make Cireat Britain strong? Britain went to war \o save 
its skin; why slu>nld we help? Let ns have i>nr freedom 
and we ean then ileeide on whieh side in the war to 
tiiiht. Bnt how ean slaves make a ehoiee? " 
*' Are yon pro-Cierman? " 
" We are not. AVe are pro- Irish." 
*• Bnt yon have aeeepted help from (lermany? '* 
*■ Yes. Bnt we have taken it as we wonKl have from 
America or France, or any outsider. But we have 
inenrred no obligations to Ciermany that we have not 
inenrred to others who are sympathetic auil disposed 
to lend ns a hand." 

*' Is it not true that there was a plan to lauil arms at an 
Irish port through Sir lu\ger fasemeut? \\as he uoi in 
the (lerman pay? " 

*' Sir lu\ger was not in the (uMinan employ. He was an 
Irish ]>atriot. He sought assistance against Kngland. 
our enemy, and for Ireland, and lie got it. But unfor- 
tunately his plans miscarried ami he was arresteil and 
imprisoneil, and later executed. This was in Ninettvn 
Hundred Sixteen, U>ng l^efore America entci-cd the war. 
We have had no truck or l>argain witli (icrmany since. 
Though Sir Roger was in British custody, we ^^ent ahead 
with our plans for an uprising. \Ve fmight Kngland and 
all its power and there were many casualties anil nuich 
loss of life. >\ c lune been accused of cowardice. Ooes 
that look like cowardice? The rebellion faileil ami our 
leaders voluntarily surrendered, (ireal Britain promptly 
shot to death eleven of them. One of our party here was 
among those sentenced to death, bnt later he was frixnh 
Yet he is uuiler constant surveillance and is liable to 
— 110 — 



$ 



jirrcsl jiiul iin[)ris()nni(Mit or worse at any time. From World War 
four lnmdred lo six Imiidred Irislmien are now in jail, At Its 
all of llieni foi- poliliejd od'ences. Yet we will not cjuit." Climax 
^1 "Are you awiire of I lie faet that Anieriean sympathy 
for llie cause of Irish freedoin has declined as a result of 
Simi iH'im'sm and I lie fjiilure of Ireland to i)lay ttie part 
in I he war America thinks Ireland should i)lay? " 
" If (hat is so it is due lo llu; lyin^- propa^^anda of Eng- 
land against Ireland. I>ord Northclitte is behind it all. 
He has s])ent more Britisli money in an effort to poison 
the Anieriean mind against Ireland then he has spent 
in his anti-(Jerman propaganda in (Germany. An 
American transi)ort was sunk on the Irish coast and a 
lot of American soldiers were landed on Trisli soil; some 
of them in a dying condition. It was widely printed 
throughout America that Ireland had treated them 
inhosi)ital)Iy, refusing to care for them. Lord North- 
elitfe did that." 

It was suggested that they i)ro})ably referred to the loss 
of the Tuscania and the landing of many American 
troops on the north coast of Ireland. The editors all 
assured the Sinn Feiners that they had seen in no 
American newspaper any description of the event im- 
puting to Ireland a lack of hospitality or humanity. 
" We think America owes us gratitude and support," 
they continued. '* We are rebels against England — so 
were you. You were successful, but why? Because you 
had so many Irishmen as soldiers in your revolution, 
(ieorge Washington said that without them the war 
for American indei)endence would have failed. Now 
you tell us that we have lost America's sympathy. There 
are twenty million Irishmen in America, and you will 
have them to reckon with in case you go back on Ire- 
land. It is inconceivable to us that you can do so. We 
rely absolutely on President Wilson and America. 
— Ill — 



World War " President Wilson is definitely on record for the self- 
At Its determination of small peoples. We are a small people 
Climax ^^ precisely the sense that the Jugo-Slavs and the 
fe Czecho-Slavs are small peoples. Our distinct racial iden- 
* tity is further emphasized by the fact that Ireland is an 
island. Geographically, ethnologically, historically, the 
Irish are a race, a people, a nation." 
" What do you expect President Wilson to do for you.'' " 
^ " We shall appear before the peace conference which 
stands for the fourteen Wilson articles of peace, includ- 
ing the right of self-definition and self-government, and 
ask for recognition. How can it be denied? We have 
come to regard President Wilson as the savior of man- 
kind. How can he refuse to stand by us, unless he is the 
world's greatest hypocrite.^ " 

" Yet the peace coiiference may refer your case back to 
the British Empire. What will be your next step.'' " 
" We shall carry on the fight. Thousands of Irishmen 
will die, but they are ready; then other thousands. But 
it will be the same till we get our rights." 
" But surely you have a concrete plan of action? " 
" Yes, we shall set up a government of our own at 
Dublin. In the coming Parliamentary election we shall 
elect at least seventy-five out of the one hundred two 
members of Parliament. They will not take their place 
at Westminster. Vacant seats there will be the silent 
witnesses of our purpose to have no more to do with the 
British Empire. These seventy-five members will be 
the nucleus of a new Irish parliament. Sixty of our 
candidates are now in jail. But it makes no difference. 
We shall find ways to get them out." 
" Will you not be satisfied if Great Britain gives you 
home rule? " 

" No. First, she will not give it. Second, we don't want 
it, and we demand, and will have, our freedom." 
— 112 — 



" How is it that Irish sentiment has for so many years World War 
favored home rule, and not separation? Whj^ the At Its 
change? " ^5^ Climax 

" There is no change. With Ireland, home rule was ^ 
merely a means to an end; a step toward the real goal — ^ 
independence. We have never wanted anything else. 
We would never have been content with anything else. 
Parnell and all the real Irish leaders actually aimed at 
separation and a distinct nationhood. We repudiate any 
other policy. We repudiate the so-called nationalist 
leaders who would give us half a loaf. They are done, 
for we are done with them." 
" What are you going to do about Ulster? " 
" We believe in majority rule. It is the republican way. 
Ireland must determine for herself what kind of govern- 
ment she will have. We will take our chances in that 
kind of decision. Let Ulster do the same." 
"Are you not aware that most Ulster men have signed 
a covenant that they will never consent to be governed 
from Dublin? " 

" Yes. But that is mainly bluff. What are they to do but 
accept the government Ireland chooses to give them? 
They will have no alternative." 

" Do you regard Ireland as capable of self-government?" 
^ " Most certainly. The days of Irish freedom from 
England were Ireland's most prosperous era. We have 
the resources, we have the men, we will get the money. 
We want Ireland's taxes spent in Ireland. We want 
fiscal freedom. We are paying Great Britain in taxes 
more than thirty million pounds per year. We can 
administer an Irish government with eleven million 
pounds. We would impose our own tariffs, create our 
own industries, find our own markets. It is true that 
England is now our best market. But if England lays a 
discriminative tariff against us we shall build a tariff 
— 113 — 



Cl.lMAX 



^^OKl-O^^AK wall against Kuiilaml. Why can't wo soil our proilucts 
At Irs to Aniorica and all the worUl? " 

"Yon have milv a t'ow million poo[)lo. llmv oan yon 
oxiHH't to maintain yourselves when yon are (>ut from 
nmlor tlio protect i(>n of the Hritish navy? " 
" Cireat Britain is the last remainiuu' auloeraey. It nuist 
go. British naxalism is a meuaee to the peace o( the 
world. .Vmerica talks nuich o( the frecilcMU of the seas. 
Siune liay yon will lu^ calleil imi io bring the l^-itish 
na\y to acctuint. We may safely lea\e all that io you. 
Ireland will be a small nation, luil it is the day when 
small nations are coming into their in\ n. Look at Oeu- 
mark, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, (loo- 
graphically Ireland is twice as large as the next largest 
small nation. It slundd have, and will lune. connnen- 
snrate population and wealth." 
** Have yon thought of Belgium? " 

" Yes. But Belgium was in (icrmany's ri>ad. If l>elgium 
had given (icrnuni troops right o^ way. there would 
have been no trouble.** 

** Is the Sinn Fein a Catholic organi/ation? Is tiie 
(\itholic Church in any way respt>nsible {or the present 
state of atfairs in Ireland? '* 

** No. Ireland is three-fourths Catholii". anil naturally 
the Sinn Feiners are nu^stly (\it holies, as all other 
revolutionary movements have been. But it should be 
remembered that Wolf Tone, the great leader, was a 
l^rotestant, and so were most o{ his associates. Robert 
F^.nunet was a Brotestant. The di\isii>n in Ireland today 
is rather geographical than denominational. IMany 
Protestants outside o\' lister are with us. Most Brotes- 
tants in I'lster are against us, and tloubtless many 
Catholics. The Church follows, rather than leads, the 
political sentiment that pre\ails within its environ- 
ment.'* .^^ .^^ 

— 114 — 



i- 



Ami si> I ho ilohnlo niii on t"i)r hours. Tho Sinn Foiiiors Would \Var 
woiv oarnost, onthiisinstu* aiul, it may bo supposed. At Its 
siuooro. It is not tho dosion lioro to say that thoy wero (^i^ij^i.vx 
visionary, uiisouidod or niistakou; only to roveal what 
is in tlioir niiiuls. Tho i-lininx of tho day was roaohod 
whon tho (i|uostion was askod: 

Is a ooniproniiso willi Kui^land not [)ossihlo? *' 
'* Nt). Kuiiland has i^ivon us tlio worst novornniont in 
tho world. l>ut it" Kn^iand uavo us tho host ut>vornniont 
in tlio world, wo should tiuht for oiu' froodoui and 
indopontlonoo. ' 



115 — 



CHAPTER XVIII 




Dined by Lord Decies in Dublin 

Interesting Social Function at Shelbourne Hotel. At ivhich Irishmen 
Prominent in Official Life were Present. 

ORD DECIES entertained the Ameri- 
can journalists at dinner in the Shel- 
bourne Hotel when prominent gentle- 
men met the visitors. 
The toasts of " the King " and the 
" President of the United States " 

were duly honored. 

Lord Decies in proposing the health of the visitors 
regretted that their visit to Ireland was such a short 
one. The time at their disposal permitted only of visit- 
ing Dublin and the great industrial city of Belfast. He 
had no doubt they had seen much, heard much, and 
learned much, but these cities, interesting as they were, 
were not all Ireland, and he should have greatly liked 
them to have the opportunity of studying the agri- 
cultural Ireland, which, even more than the great 
centers, gives its character to the national life. They 
had seen industries of peace and war, but they had not 
seen the effort of the farmers and laborers of Ireland 
to supply food for their own population and that of 
Great Britain, and to do their share in defeating the 
menace which had so long haunted the seas. 
He also regretted that this was the first party of Ameri- 
can press w4io had been able to pay a visit to Ireland in 
the four years of war. He believed that the whole future 
peace of humanity depended on a union of ideal and 
— 117 — 



9 



World ^VAR eti'ort between the Eiiglish-speakiiiii" peoples of Europe 
At Its *^ii^^ America. In the United States there were many 
Cllm\x "^ill^<^^^=^ *-^^ citizens of Irish birth and Irish descent. 
Naturally and rightly their hearts turned to the old 
country, and they were deeply interested in her happi- 
ness and prosperity. The Irish problem was one in 
which the American nation as a whole took a deeper 
concern than in any other foreign question, and because 
of that he believed it to be in the highest interest of 
the I'nited States, of Great Britain, and of Ireland, 
that leaders of American opinion should have an 
intimate acquaintance with this island and its atfairs, 
which could only be obtained l\v personal investigation. 
To that end he had during the past two years urged 
strongly and persistently that all parties of leading 
Americans who visit Great Britain should also visit 
Ireland, and when there, should have every oppor- 
tunity of meeting men of all classes, creeds, and politics, 
and of learning all that could be learned of the 
complex elements that go ti> make the Irish question. 
Their presence was a pleasant fultillmeut of that wish, 
and he hoped it was an augury of many future visits to 
this country by other distinguished representatives of 
the great Republic. 

Mr. Franklin P. Glass, of Birmingham. Alabama, who 
responded, is an old fellow student and friend of Presi- 
dent AVilson. He said they were tremendously interested 
in the Irish question. America was, to a large extent, 
the creation in fact, in spirit, and in purpose of Ireland. 
Irishmen went to America in thousands during many 
years and they had a considerable part in bringing about 
an American revolution which was said to have taught 
England an important lesson in handling her colonies. 
Whether England was able to solve the Irish question 
with as nuich wisdom and ethciency as she succeeded 
— 118 — 



ill solving" the colonial question remained to be demon- World War 
strated. If they, as Americans, could be of assistance in At Its 
that, they would be delighted to give assistance. Climax 

The Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, in proposing the ^ 
toast of "America," spoke of the close bonds wliich had ' 
united Ireland to America, and expressed the hope that 
America would do everything in its power to ])romote 
the happiness of Ireland, as Ireland in the past had done 
a great deal to promote the strength of America. 
Sir Horace Plunkett, also speaking to the toast, referred 
to the prominent part the Irish had taken in the 
American contribution to the war, not only on land, but 
perhaps more so on sea. He pointed to the rather strange 
fact that so large a proportion of the American navy 
and so small a proportion of England's was Irish. He went 
on to say that he had been one of those who realized 
the immense importance of trying to reach an Irish 
settlement during the war. ^lany held that it was a 
most ino})})ortuiie time to be discussing such a problem, 
but he personally held that never was there such an 
opportunity. He felt that the effect of this world-shaking 
event would probably divert the minds of Ii-ishmen 
from the more local aspects of their problem and enable 
them to take the larger view of it: that it would appeal 
as never before to the highest instincts, the historic 
instincts of the Irish people, and although those of them 
who had been engaged in an earnest and protracted 
endeavor to reach a settlement during the war were 
disappointed, he believed they did not labor in vain, 
and if they did not settle the Irish question they made 
it more amenable to settlement than it had ever been 
before. He held that what he might call the peace value 
of a settlement between Great Britain and Ireland was 
of immeasurably greater importance than any possil^le 
war effect the settlement might have had. When after 
— 119 — 



World ^VAK tiie war they had to pass from the question of what 
At Its they were fighting against to the question of what they 
Climvx '^^'^^'^ fighting for. the problems wouUi be far more 
\^ complex, and as they became less questions of physical 
* power and more questions of political reasoning a 
settlement of the questions of small nationalities would 
become more urgent than ever before. In the ultimate 
settlement of the Irish question he did not anticipate 
that the United States government was likely to take 
an active part. It would be wholly unnecessary. But 
the weight and intiuence oi the American people would 
be not only helpful, but would probably be a determin- 
ing factor in the settlement of a question which was of 
as nuich interest and importance to them as it was to 
this country, and every right-thinking man would be 
anxious to assist them to see the Irish truest ion in every 
one of its diti'erent points of view. 

The company assembled to meet the American visitors 
also included the Citv High Sheritf ^Mr. A. Beattic, 
D. L.), Mr. Wm. :M. Mnrphv, Gen. Hyrne. C/ol. Fowie. 
Capt. Gwynn. M. P., Sir H. Shetheld, Kev. Or. Mur- 
ray, ^lajor Montague, etc. 

P S T I. r D K 

In the three years following the visit of the American 
newspaper delegation, Ireland has been the scene oi 
epochal events; but neither the aims of the irreconcilable 
extremists nor the fears of those who deemed 
Ireland's struggle for political liberty hopeless, have been 
realized. The Irish Free State has been born. Its estab- 
lishment is a notch short of the absolutely independent 
Irish Republic which was the ultimate i>bject of the 
predominant Sinn Fein faction. 

The plan of campaign outlined by the Sinn Fein K\niers 

to their American listeners, as already nientioned, was 

— I'iO — 



put in oi)orati()ii in (he oonoral Parliaiiicntary olcH'tioiis World War 
of Ninctoon lluiulivd KiiihUvn. Tho voluino and \'p lys^ 
violoiur of the Sinn Fein movcMiiont tliat ovcrswopl (^[jjyj^x 
Ireland at tliat time may he judged from a simple r./ 
inathematieal eom[)aris()u. In the outgoinu-, or War, ^ 
Parliament, Southern Ireland i.e., the anti-British 
constitueneies — had ninety representatives, of wjiom 
only six were aA'owed Sinn Feiners, while nearly all the 
rest, or seventy-eight, were Irish Nationalists, or Home 
Hulers, who had followed the leadershij) of ,lolm E. 
Redmond, reeently deeeased, and John Dillon. Hut 
when the returns for the Parliamentary election follow- 
ing the Armisliee were all in, it was found that tlie Sinn 
Feiners had elected seventy-tluve members and the 
Home Rulers only seven. 

This striking reversal told the whole story of the Sinn 
Fein avalanche. What is more, the seventy-eight Sinn 
Feiners were elected, not to sit in Farlianienl, but to 
protest against British rule by staying home. Their 
seats were never tilled; and thus one of the ])r(Mlicti()ns 
made to the American visitors was verified. 
The political revolt of aroused Ireland was soon fol- 
lowed l)y armed rebellion. For more than two years 
most of the counties of Southern Ireland were in a state 
of insurrection. Owing to the strict British censorship, 
little was known l)y the outside world of the progress of 
the fighting. It has since gradually come out that in the 
later months of the rebellion, tlie British army of occu- 
pation, including the considerable body of irregular 
troo})s known as " Black-and-Tans," was not far from 
one hundred thousand. But in the reports that filtered 
through there were accounts of sharp local engage- 
nients, and many interesting stories of the prowess and 
enterprise of the leader of the Irish insurgents, General 
^lichael Collins. 

— 121 — 



World Wak The on-looking world had just begun to settle down to 
At Its l^^^^ contemplation of a long, weary and sanguinary 
Cliai^x struggle in Ireland, when in the early fall of Nineteen 
' ^ Hundred Twenty-one it was surprised, almost startled. 
^ by the news that an Irish delegation had accepted an 
invitation to go to London and treat for peace and a 
settlement with Premier Lloyd George and other min- 
isters of the British crown. Next came the announce- 
ment of a truce and the departure of an Irish delegation, 
including Eamonn de Valera. President of the Republic 
that had been proclaimed by the Sinn Fein. The result- 
ing conference was abortive, but it paved the way for a 
second meeting, which yielded historic results. 
Among the delegates to the second conference was 
General Collins and the founder of the Sinn Fein, the 
famous Arthur Grifhth. The upshot of its ileliberations 
was the memorable " London Treaty." which led to 
the organization of the Irish Free State. This was in 
December, Nineteen Hundred Twenty-one. AVithin a 
few weeks the treaty was approved in the face of 
strenuous opposition on the part of Mr. De Valera and 
his sympathizers, by a small but decisive majority. 
Five months later it was endorsed by an overwhelming 
majority of the Irish voters, in a general election of 
members of the Dail Eireann. the legislative body of 
the Free State. 

In the first months of existence Ireland's new ship of 
state encountered stormy weather. A surviving faction 
of the Irish Republican army rebelled against the 
London settlement, and De Valera took the lead in 
letter propaganda against the Free State compromise. 
The outcome was a period of local, desultory warfare, 
chiefly in Dublin and Cork, between the soldiers of the 
Free State's army and the regulars of the extreme 
Republican wing. Satisfactory headway had been made 
— U2 — 



in piittiiiii' down the revolt when the new government 
was severely afHieted by the death of Arthur (iriffith. 
President of the Dail Eireann. Another and more sensa- 
tional loss was in store for it, in the tragie death of 
Miehael Collins, chief of the Irish administration, who 
was killed by rebel soldiers fii'ing from ambush. 
These calamities, painful as they were, had a pacifica- 
tory etl'ect. At the first meeting of the Dail Eireann held 
after the deaths of (iriffith and Collins, the members 
elected Richard A. Cosgrave president of their body, 
and in his first official address he pledged himself and 
his su])i)orters to work for Irish unity and to continue 
the policies of which Griffith and Collins had been the 
leading advocates. 



World War 
At Its 
Climax 









^^Ww^Wj^'^t^ 



O'Connell .St reet cxnS iiria<jp _ JXiblirv 



P23 



PART V 



France and Belgium 



Visiting the Battle Fronts in 
Both the Above Countries 



Paris and Its Sights 






Prelude 

S a prelude to the tour to battle fronts 
in France and Belgium, Lord Beaver- 
brook had asked us to his charming 
country seat in Surrey, about twenty 
miles out of London, Sunday, October 
Twentieth. Lord Beaverbrook's sister 

and his brother. Major Aitken, were 

guests of the retreats. Major Aitken was in the Canadian 
service, out of the firing line on rest leave. His home 
was at Saskatchewan, Canadian Northwest. Lady 
Beaverbrook was a daughter of one of Canada's most 
prominent generals, whose home was in Toronto. Lady 
Beaverbrook and her sister entertained our party in the 
most gracious and democratic fashion, his Lordship 
being ill. Later, however. Lord Beaverbrook dressed 
and, coming down stairs, put on a moving picture show 
of war scenes which had been shown only to a few 
government officials. Of course, the strictest secrecy w as 
enjoined ^«» &^ 

Beaverbrook is one of the most delightful country 
homes in England. An English lord many years ago 
had at forty been told he had only a few years to live. 
A man of great wealth, he decided to relinquish all busi- 
ness cares and bought the valley tract of land wherein 
Beaverbrook is situated and devoted his entire time to 
developing it. From all over the world he gathered tree 
and shrub and flower and plant. And instead of dying 
in a few years the founder of this wonderful estate 
lived to see it reach its full fruition and died only after 
he had passed ninety. 

— 127 — 



World War Major Aitken, who was my companion on a tour of the 
At Its grounds, asked me what I thought of the phice, to which 
Cli]\l\x ^ answered: 

J '* If I owned Sandringham, where the King and Queen 
^ entertained us a week ago today, and Beaverbrook, I 'd 
rent Sandringham and Hve in Beaverbrook. And no 
disparagement is meant to Sandringham, which is one 
of the finest country seats I 've ever seen." 
There were three Beaverbrook children, the oldest 
about ten. Lord and Lady Beaverbrook, the Lord's 
sister and brother, and the children, aside from a great 
dinner, gave us a day full of charm and welcome that 
was genuine and homelike and remains a pleasing 
memorv with all of us. 



1^28 



CHAPTER XIX 



Ancient Lympne 




Churches, Castles and Other Buildings Go Back Beyond the Dark 
Ages — Lympne, Quaint and Ancient, Deeply Interests the 
Stranger — // comes Down to us from Centuries Before the Dark 
Ages. 

YTHE, England, has for centuries 
been known as a favorite watering 
1^ place. Lympne, in years gone by, was 
on an estuary that in recent years has 
become filled in so that today it is 
three miles inland and is thought to 
have been the original harbor which 
gave Hythe a place among the Cinque ports. The 
course of the ancient estuary may be distinctly traced 
from here along the road to Hythe, the sea sand lying 
on the surface and coloring the soil. Here are the remains 
of a Roman fortress, and excavations have brought to 
light many remains of the Roman Portus Lemanis. 
Large portions of the fortress walls are standing. At the 
southwest corner is one of the circular towers which 
occurred along the line of the wall. The site is now 
occupied by the fine old castellated mansion, Studfall 
castle, formerly a residence of the archdeacons of 
Canterbury. The name denotes a fallen place, and is 
infrequently thus applied to ancient remains. The 
church at Lympne is Early English, with a Norman 
tower built by Archbishop Lanfranc, and Roman ma- 
terial may be traced in the walls. A short distance east 
is Shipway or Shepway Cross, where some of the great 
— 129 — 



AVorldWar assemblies relating to the Cinque ports were held. A 

At Its i^^i^^ north from Hythe is Saltwood castle, of very 

Clevi^x '"^^^^^i^^^it origin, but rebuilt in the time of Richard II. 



$ 



The castle was granted to the See of Canterbury in 
Ten Hinidred Twenty-six. but escheated to the crown 
in the time of Henry II. when the murder of Thomas a 
Beckett is said to have been conceived there, and, 
returned to the archdeacons by King elohn. to remain 
their residence until the time of Henry VIII. It was 
restored as a residence in Eighteen Hundred Eighty- 
two. About two miles northwest of Saltwood are remains 
of the fortified Fourteenth-Century manor-house of 
Westenhanger. It is quadrangular and surrounded by a 
moat, and of the nine towers, (alternately round and 
square,) by which the walls were defended, three 
remain .'j^ &^ 




*^^?^V'- "' 




^Iptllliom^ 



U^Uir 



Lym-pj 



i,e C*Ji-tle 



nyr\n 



— VoO 



CHAPTER XX 




A Flight Not Flown 

What Man Has Done Man Can Do — Newspaper Men Resolve to 
Do All Magazine Contemporaries Had Done and Many 
Things They Had Left Undone. 

N ever present ambition filled the minds 
of the intrepid editors to outdo and 
excel their magazine predecessors 
abroad in every experience and en- 
deavor. AYe met them in London on 
our arrival there, their mission com- 

pleted, home bound. Feigning an air 

of lofty disdain, Edward W. Bok of the Ladies' Home 
Journal asked why we had come: 
" To end the war," was the reply. 

Thereupon Bok cited the collapse of Bulgaria as an 
accomplishment of his party. 
To this the defender of our party answered: 
" It 's all perfectly plain. AVe were within three days of 
Liverpool and sent the Bulgarians a wireless saying 
twelve live American newspaper publishers — not maga- 
zine publishers, but real publishers — were coming. With 
a look of abject defeat upon their faces they said, 
' What 's the use? ' threw up their hands and quit." &^ 
And when our British hosts informed us that magazine 
men had been invited to visit Ireland and to fly across 
the English Channel and had done neither, we resolved 
that ignominy such as attached to magazine men should 
not come to us. Told that a paramount feature of our 
London to Paris journey was a flight over the English 
— 131 — 



Climax 



WokldWar Channel in an airplane, we promptly aceepted the otfer. 
At Its ^vhioh promised a maxinuim of thrills with a minimum 
of danger. 

A few days before we had left Kngland for France a 
• monster Haiidley-Fai^e nu\ehine with a passenger- 
eapaeity of forty and capable of a sptvd of one hundred 
miles an hour Hew over Loudon in a trial prelimiuary 
to establishing a passenger air service betwtXM\ Loudon 
and Paris, which btvame an accomplished fact a few 
mouths later. Flights over the Fuglish cliaunel were being 
rt^gidarly made at the time. 

Lympne was the grtwt English station for asseuibling 
airplanes. American and British machines weiv taken 
here, assembled, inspei'ttxi. tried out and tlowu in tloeks 
to Allied fronts. AVe had gone there by train from Lou- 
don and detrained to make our tlight to Frauce by air- 
plane .^ .^ 

Misgivings, discussions, iuquiries aud anxieties arose 
as the giant Haudley-Fage machine, with its powerful 
motors, eight hundred horsepower, was pointed out. 
It was drawn atield from its hangar by an iuuueuse 
tractor. AVe manifested tensest interest in the ponder- 
ous airship and fell to discussing the status of our 
accident iusurauce policies, should there be a mishap. 
AVe decided we would be guilty of a forbidden hazard 
and that insurance companies might refuse to pay. 
Comparing notes, it was revealed that most of us carried 
heavy general insurance and if lost in the tlight would 
sell ourselves to the insurance companies at rather stitf 
sums. It setnneil a glowing prosptx^t to greatly enrich 
posterity tinancially should we make the supreme sacri- 
fice. AVe thought of the many nice things that would 
be told of us Ixick home in big black typt^— things w ( 
had never known while living. After all. what did a 
dozeu editors more or less matter, auyway? AVould u*t 
— 18^ — 



Climax 



>vo sink to sloop in tho oonifortinu' thoniiiit that wo had WohldWar 
ontdono our niaga/.ino hrothron? At Its 

The ihiy was oUnuly and misty with an al>sonoo ot" wind, 
idoal for an air voyago, in tlio minds of tho uninitiatod. 
Thon oamo tlio distnrbinu- thonghl that (lorman air 
hnooanoors miuht no^loot to sonntl thoir foi;; iiorns whon 
I'omini;' sndilonly npon ns l)ohind a ilark oloud, hixiX tlio 
whok^ l>unoh of Amorioan pnhhshors and mako otf for 
Horhn with thorn. 

A Sot>toh ook>nok aftor ouv tirst [)roparation to lly, toUl 
ns of tlio groat oost of oonstrnotini^' tho mighty maohino 
wo woro to tako, and said that anothor attompt might ho 
mado jnst boforo noon if it oloarod in tho intorim. *' IVr- 
haps yon won't mind a slight ohanoo of a tlitHonlt land- 
ing," ho obsorvod. 

*' Oh, not at all, not at aU," oliimoil tho oditors, ** Ihongh 
of oourso wo wonld n't for all tho world havo yon tako 
tho ohanoo of damaging so valnablo a llandloy-Tago 
maohino on onr aooonnt. Thoro aro othor wavs of roaoh- 



ing Franco 



INloanwhilo wo had absorbingly watohod aviators tako 
maohino aftor maohino and tly away, nndistnrbod by 
conditions. Thoy woro testing ont a tloot of pianos 
tlosignod for war uso which woro to bo takon o\or and 
wonld act as a sort of aerial ct)nvoy to tho grand tlight 
of tho oditors. 

Tho voyagors woro slu>wn about plant and tiold. Thou- 
sands of wonion worked in [)lants and hangars. Camo 
noon and from ont of buildings thoy pourod in marching 
squads into tho plaza in tho center of the place. In 
platoons thoy marched away to luncheon. It was an 
inspiring spectacle. 

The heavens wore still nuu'ky, and our colonel-host 
invited us to lunch at Lympue castle, ancient rendezvous 
of the Archbislu>]> of Canterbury, now hoaiUiuartors of 



^YoRLD^YAR an aviation corps. In an hour or so he promised we 

At Its iiiight be able to make the flight. Lunch half over, the 

Climvx <^'^1<^^i*'^- called to the telephone, returned shortly with 

to beaming countenance saying, he had just heard from 

* France and he believed we would soon be able to make 

the liight i^ .=^ 

As we sat chatting after our lunch, seven British aces, 
bristling with medals, insignia of bravery, came in and 
took a table back of me. One of them had evidently 
just returned from the front and told minutely in an 
undertone of a thrilling battle in the air with three 
Bodies a few days before. I'nfortunately. eagerly never- 
theless, I drank in every word of it. He had been sur- 
prised. He described how he did nose dives, tail dives, 
volplaned, and executed the various other maneuvers 
necessary to outwit and deceive his antagonist, before 
he shot down a German ace. his machine in Hames. 
and drove otf the other two. 

It was a graphic tale. Upon u\e. however, it acted as 
anything but a good digestant. 

We were marched back to the ceilonels otHces and 
everything was made ready for our flight. It gets very 
cold a few thousand feet up in the air and there were 
electrically heated coats, helmets, fur gloves, goggles, 
all piled in a heap. At headquarters we were informed 
it was necessary for a plane to attain a height of ten 
thousand feet so that should anything happen over the 
channel we could, without power, volplane or glide 
either over to France or back to England. 
The big Handley-Page machine was again hauled out 
by a tractor and workmen got busy testing apparatus, 
adjusting wings, trying the engine and whirling the 
propeller. Clad in our uncouth paraphernalia, as if 
about to begin a Polar expedition, twelve gloomy 
editors closely watched tactics. It was a tense moment. 
— KU — 



Ill my roportorial days, 1 recalled, I had seen one man World War 
go to the ii'allows and, at another lime, one sent to the At Its 
eleetrie ehair, when a meniher of our ])arty broke in Clim^vx 
upon niv melancholy medilations with 



** Well, O'llara, how do you feel about it now? " 

" Just as you do, you hypocrite, oulwai-dly calm and 

boastful; inwardly praying for rain." 

In early childhood a good mother inspired this writer 

with an abiding faith in the etlicacy of prayer. Our 

colonel-host looked n\) at dark clouds hanging over the 

channel, said it was raining in France and solemnly 

remarked : 

" Well, there 's one chance in a hundred it may not be 

all right. With my own men 1 'd have to take that 

chance. You are Americans, guests of the British 

government, and T 'm not going to take that chance 

with you gentlemen." 

Soon it rained and we were on our way by automobile 

to Folkestone, whence we sailed for Houlogne. We were 

met there by British otHcers with automobiles, had 

a good dinner at a French restaurant, and at ten o'clock 

resumed our journey to Hadinghem, that was to l)e our 

headquarters during our stay at the fighting fronts in 

France and l>elgiuni. A two hours' swift ride over a fair 

road tlirough stately Lombardy poplar trees brought us 

to our chateau shortly before midnight. 



f 




l;« — 



( IlArTER XXI 



Radinghem Castle 




Iliaiorical Old Chafcaii irliich General Ilaig in Piirsiiif of Retreatiag 
(iennans Ahandonecl Four ]]\'eh\^ Hefore Arriral of the FAlitora. 

ADINCiHKIM Chnteau,or castle, which- 
c\'er name one is pleased to use, is of 
massive stone construction and digni- 
tied, imposing architecture. Tall, circu- 
lar towers and minarets give it an 
appearance of great size without and 
spaciousness within, the latter not 
borne out on insi)ection, as l)eyond an extensive dining 
hall and a big living room, each with huge, old-fashioned 
firei)laces, the chateau, for its size, is cut up into many 
small rooms. 

A moat, reminiscent of mediaeval days, surrounds the 
chateau, with its quaint, ancient-looking draw-bridges, 
which in olden times were raised at night, j)rotecting 
occupants of the castle against unwelcome visitors or 
marauding bands which then infested the country. In 
the hills beyond the chateau is the source of 
the river Lys, of which the moat is a part, so that the 
latter is always abundantly supplied with water. 
Spacious grounds, with a wilderness of big trees, green- 
houses, grottoes and fountains, tell of former rich 
attractiveness. While the chateau bears the appearance 
of great age, it really was built only seventy-five years 
ago by an Englishman. Some parts of it, however, come 
down from feudal days, a building having stood on the 
spot as early as the Tenth Century. Somewhat back 
— 137 — 



T 



^VoKLD^VAl^ from the villairo street and just outside the great arehed 
At Its gateway of Radmghem Castle is a quaint httle Cathohe 
Climax ^^^^^^ch in the middle of a quainter cemetery, both of 
which kx^k centuries oki. 

Rich-toned silver bells at matins and vesper time awoke 
memories of pre-war days when peace and happiness 
reigned among these simple pei^ple. who today were 
being summoned to morning and evening prayer, the 
burden of which was that war might soon end. Nestling 
in a picturesque, peaceful valley, prior to Nineteen Hun- 
dred FourtetMi. pastoral inhabitants of Radinghem 
settlement never dreamed that war othces would one 
day be established in the historic old castle. 
Several weeks before our arrival at Radinghem. Uinden- 
bnrg had been forced to pick up his line and move it 
back toward Berlin. Sir Douglas Ilaig. commander-in- 
chief of the British armies, eager to keep in as close 
comnumication with Hindenburg as possible, turneii 
Radinghem Castle over to his government and. following 
Hindenburg eastward, established his headquarters in a 
similar castle twenty miles away. The British govern- 
ment dtvided to use the castle for Americans who, for 
one reason or another, had othcial business in the 
locality. General Haig left behind him. in charge, an 
excellent corps of chefs and other servants under several 
of his aides. From here our party was to sally to battle 
fronts in Belgium and France, leaving in the early 
morning in a train of automobiles, owned by Fnglish 
generals and driven by British soldiers, and returning 
late at night after a strenuous two hundred or two hun- 
dred liftv mile ride. 



LS8 — 




5 K 

2^ 



CHAPTER XXII 




An Unique and Scientific Stunt 

Itujcnioiis Allies Found a u'di/ fo Get Propananda into (Icrnian 
Hanks. I'scd II of Air Paper lialloons. 

jN what that excellent reporter, Irviii S. 
Cobb, described so plainly as the slam- 
ming and banii'ini;- of war, the sword 
seemed mightier than the pen. To a 
])nblisher particnlarly, cherishing belief 
in the power of the press, api)roacli to 
the front was something of a disilln- 
sionmeut. Somehow the front l)roiight back to one 
Napoleon's profession of faith in battalions, and 
ponnded home the fact that a machine-gnn had its nses 
that conld not be hlled by a typewriter. If ever there 
was a " nnnxler of a lovely theory l\v a gang of brntal 
facts," it was in the a{)parent doing in of the adage that 
the pen is mightier than the sword. 
Every one recognized, of conrse, that the press was 
indisi)ensable in keeping np morale in dark hours, in 
disseminating information, bnt stark facts ruled at the 
front. It was therefore a morsel of comfort to us to find 
at Hadinghem that the press was in the war. 
There were bales of literature in French and German at 
the castle ready for circulation in Germany and in the 
borderland, where both languages were used. The issues 
included maps showing the advance of the Allies and 
carrying notations of (lernian casualties and losses in 
materials of war. They comprised dodgers with argu- 
ments likely to appeal to a people breaking under the 
— 139 — 



World War strain of war with its grief, mental depression in defeat, 

At Its disease and hunger. There were folders, fac-similes of 

Clevl\x ^^tt^^'^ from Germans, who were prisoners of war, 

to writing home to tell their families that they were well 

* fed and well treated. All these were carried by balloons 

or airplanes for distribution in the enemy territory. It 

was a campaign of peaceful penetration in the midst 

of war s^ ."^ 

An aide of General Haig, who showed us the material 
and explained the mechanism of this little-known phase 
of the war. said that the Intelligence Department 
reported unmistakable signs of its effects. Although it 
was an offense carrying a death penalty for a German 
soldier to keep such literature picked up from the enemy, 
it was said, prisoners brought in were found to have 
Allied prison camp menus concealed under their tunics. 
^ The way this subtle ammunition was carried to the 
enemy was scientifically prepared. Captive balloons 
were let up with their crews and say a half a ton of such 
material, when the winds were favorable. In the cargo 
of the captive balloons were smaller paper balloons, to 
which packages of the pamphlets were attached. A 
timeing device was set so that the print paper would be 
dropped after the smaller balloons had been in the air a 
definite time. The drift of the wind was calculated so 
that the propaganda would reach the particular locality 
for which it was designed before it dropped. 
High lights in campaigns of this sort were the subject of 
press correspondence in wartime, as when D'Annunzio 
flew over Vienna and bombarded the Austrian capital 
with his own writings on the war. There was dogged- 
does-it daily work of the sort, however, that passed 
without mention. 

On the American front, a principal argument used in the 

communications to the enemy was that Americans fed 

— UO — 



their prisoners well. It was to combat enemy propa- World War 
ganda that prisoners were tortured. At Its 

The P^rench, with Latin subtlety, released anonymous Climax 
writings, purporting to be by French Socialists, calling ^ 
upon their German comrades to drop their arms and ' 
stop the senseless slaughter of workmen by workmen at 
the behest of " their masters." 

British bluntness marks the samples of the British air- 
press. " By Balloon " is printed in English on top of the 
front page of many of the specimens before me as I 
write. Below the legend the same routing is printed in 
German, " Durch Luftballon." 

One interesting dodger in the souvenir collection is a 
sheet with a cartoon on one page, and the reverse blank. 
The cartoon is captioned, " DieErste Million." In the 
foreground, climbing up a slope lettered " Frankreich " 
is a heroic-sized American soldier carrying the colors, 
and behind him stretching from pictured France back 
to New York and the Statue of Liberty in the back- 
ground are phalanxes of troops, the first million arriving 
in France on the bridge of ships. The soldier would 
quarrel with the cartoon which shows him carrying his 
amnmnition belt slung like a bandolier, and the artist 
might criticise the execution, but the idea is plain and 
the Germans got it. 

Even the well-oiled German propaganda machine could 
not erase that picture from the minds of the German 
people once they had seen it. Whatever they might mis- 
take in it, they could not mistake the Stars and Stripes, 
the men behind it, and the goddess of Liberty toward 
whom millions of them had strained their eyes in the 
past &^ 5o» 

Titles of other communications among the specimens 

are interesting in their suggestiveness. One is " Langsamer 

Hungertod," which even to one unacquainted with 

— 141 — 



World Wae German conveys some of its harsh meaning of slow death 

At Its ^^y J^tarvation. Another title with a special appeal to the 

CLr\L\x piii^'^^'^^^pl^i^^"^^ German is " The Fnture of Germany — 



f 



The enemy did not let the attack of the Allied press go 
nnchallenged. They issned connter-otfensive propa- 
ganda, circnlated by small, colored-paper balloons, which 
were shot down by American snipers and forwarded to the 
Intelligence Department after souvenir hunters had 
obtained their copies hot from the press. American 
veterans recall their anticipation of the weekly arrival 
of '* The American in France." 

** The American in France '* was published in Fnglish 
at Strasbourg, according to information in its 
columns v^^ c^^ 

Its earlier issues were on heavy gloss paper. All were 
well prepared. The colunms contained numerous adver- 
tisements of beer gardens, theaters and anuisement 
places behind the German lines, the German idea of an 
invitation to the Yankees to go across and be comfort- 
able ,=^ .'^^ 

The photographic reproductions in the publication were 
executed beautifully. Some of them were of cuts from 
Fnglish publications issued in Civil War times. Others 
were of American soldiers who were prisoners in Ger- 
many. A favorite grouping was of a dozen or more 
apparently intact Yankees sitting in a beer garden with 
nuisical instruments in hand and steins on the tables, 
proving something about good fellows getting together, 
perhaps. Study of the photographed faces of the 
Americans showed in every instance that at least one 
in the group was glowering. 

The object of the old Fnglish cuts was to show that 

England had tried to aid in dismemberment of the 

I'nion. That was the appeal one week. The next week 

— U^2 — 



it was to Irisli-Anioricaiis anionu; ilio troops to nMiieni- World War 
hor Iivland. At Its 

To tlie slii(I(Mil of tlic iiuMliods and otlocts of piihlica- (^i^jj^^x 
tioM fJKMV always ap|)CNirc(l some (law in the (JcMMuaii e, 
luotliod of ari^imuMit. A logical scl of j)r(Mniscs would he ' 
built up and an ohlicjuc t'onclusiou draAvn. For instance, 
it was argued: England and Ireland never got 
along &^ &^ 

Britain has oppressed Ireland. Irishmen have haled 
Hritons for centuries, (icnnany hated England. There- 
fore ciiildren and grandchildren of Irishmen and Irish 
women should join Hergdoll. 

K<Mleclions on the foiegoing make a publisher think that 
maybe the English language press amounted to more 
than a little in the war. Not only were the newspapers 
of the ail- working, l)ut there were such i)ublications as 
" La Libre Beige," one of the most gallaid ventures in 
newsj)aper history. All the world knows how that 
impish sheet pestered the (Jerman occupants of Belgium 
with the reminder that possession may be nine-tenths 
of the law, but that there is another tenth comi)ounded 
out of human genius, spirit, and gumption that a man 
keeps no matter how down he is, a tenth that keeps him 
from going out. 

William Allen White, the seasoned Kansas publislier, 
in similar recollections of mildly martial adventures, 
connnented on the unreality of it all in France. 
Henry and he, he wrote in eli'ect, referring to Governor 
Allen, of Kansas, should have been home waiting for 
four o'clock to arrive and the call to i)lay golf to come 
to end the daily battle of business with ])a]HM- manu- 
facturers and advertisers. Yet there they \vere in 
France .^^ s^ 

^ So were we, like the old classical poet, a part of the 

things of which we tell, and among the most ])leasant 

— 143 — 



World AYar of them tlie experience at Radiiiiihein in learning that 

At Its f<^^od <^iiti n't win the war. tanks did n't win the war, 

Clim\x Thrift stamps and LiluM'ty bonds didn't win the war. 

to peach pits did n't win the war. nor knitting needles, nor 

' chocohites, nor cigarettes, any of them alone, Init the 

boys and all of ns, and the press doing its bit. 




144 



( HAPTER XXIII 




Over the Top into No-Man's-Land 

Publishers Get into New War Zone with all the Trappings of War 
— War While Yet Seen in its Terrible Reality. 

UN up Tuesday morning, October 
Twenty-second, found the ambitious 
editors astir and, in war parlance, 
eager to " go over the top/' An aide to 
(ieneral Haig told of the dangers we 
were about to meet and in the great 
hall of the castle put us through a drill 
in llie use of gas masks, especially as to putting them 
on properly and quickly. Having mastered this knack, 
we were put in a gas chamber for three minutes to try 
out the masks issued to us and to satisfy ourselves they 
were working properly. If a smell of gas was detected we 
were to notify our instructor, who was in the house with 
us, and we should l)e taken out of the darkened house 
into the open air immediately. Next we received steel 
helmets and wcM-e told we nmst love and cherish our tin 
hats and canvas false faces, ready to don them at an in- 
stant's warning. As we afterward saw, in danger zones, 
where gas shells might fall at any time, were sign boards 
notifying the wayf jirer he nuist put on his mask. Our part- 
ing instruction in the headgear and mask drill was that 
when we started for the active fighting front we must 
not kick an object of any kind on road or in field for 
fear it would explode. Nor must we pick up a wire or 
cord or string which might be attached to a bomb. 
At nine thirty A. M., on October Twenty -second, in six 
— U5 — 



World War headquarters' automobiles under escort of a half dozen 

At Its British officers and with hideous headgear and masks, 

Climax ^^^ started for Bethune, Givenchy, Armentieres, Balleul, 

C Hazebrouck and Aire. At Fruges, first sizable town, we 

^ encountered a funeral described elsewhere. Women, old 

men and children worked in fields and on road. Work 

horses were driven mostly by children. Vehicles were 

for the most part two- wheeled carts drawn by a single 

horse. Wheels of carts were high in contrast to wheels of 

wagons which were as small as the cart wheels were big. 

^At St. Pol, a good sized town, we came upon the first 

glimpse of destruction by German guns or bombers. 

The entire front of what had been a great cathedral lay 

partly across our path, no eft'ort having been made to 

clear away the wreckage. The church had been hit by a 

German air raider. 

Through Briey we went next, a large coal-mining center 
from which France was getting most of its supply of 
coal, other mines of France being at the time in the 
hands of the Germans. Although not far distant from 
the Hindenburg line the town was orderly and pros- 
perous, no other place in France as near the fighting 
line having been spared visits from night bombers or 
guns. Perhaps the ulterior motive of the Germans in 
sparing Briey was that later on they might be able to 
use the mines, as they had so many north of there. 
After Briey came abrupt transition from scenes of peace 
to desolation of war. Barbed wire entanglements were 
everywhere, a perfect wilderness of this most vicious 
device to protect on one hand and to torture on the 
other. There were trenches and dugouts, which had 
been stubbornly occupied, although trees all around had 
been shot into splinters. It had been a difficult matter, 
we were told, to put up barbed wire entanglements, as 
wooden poles had to be driven into the ground with a 
— 146 — 



sledge hammer, which, as work was done stealthily at World War 
night, aroused the enemy and interrupted the work. At Its 
Some inventive genius, however, brought out a machine Cumax 
w^hose capacity equaled that of an immense number of ^ 
men, and iron tubing was used instead of wooden posts " 
or stakes, and like the celebrated devil's bridge, acres 
of barbed wire entanglements appeared over night. 
In all this dismal territory there were no signs of life. 
Destruction completed, the Germans had been driven 
back. Companies of soldiers going into fight or coming 
out to rest billets were met frequently plodding along 
badly shot roads or riding in lorries, as auto trucks were 
called &^ &^ 

Bethune, a town of considerable size, was under fire 
fiercely in the years Nineteen Hundred Fourteen and 
Fifteen and early Nineteen Hundred Sixteen. The town 
was an utter wreck, yet cellars and half-destroyed build- 
ings were inhabited by tenants who had stuck it out 
through all the fearful agonies of the long days and 
nights, or had returned because no better place could 
be found in which to exist. 



— 147 — 



CHAPTER XXIV 




Moat Farm 

Like Gallant Six Hundred at Balaklava Allied Twenty Eight are 
Among the Immortals — Need no Other Monument Tlmn That 
Under which they Lie Buried. 

OAT FARM at Givenchy or Windy 
Corner on the borderland between 
Northeastern France and Belgium de- 
serves to go into history as a scene of 
battle as tragic as that of Balaklava, 
which Tennyson in his great epic poem, 
" The Charge of the Light Brigade," 
has immortalized. A different method of warfare, how- 
ever, as cannon and gun and sabre and horse were sup- 
planted by bomb and shell and shrapnel and tank and 
airplane. Twenty-eight men in a circular, concrete fort 
or huge turret or pill box, as it was generally called, were 
equipped with every known kind of modern fighting 
paraphernalia. For months the pill box had withstood 
the terrific onslaught of the Hun with the same stub- 
born, fiery spirit that possessed the noble six hundred 
who rode " Into the jaws of death, into the mouth of 
hell." &^ &4^ 

A huge shell bursting upon the roof carried it to the 
basement, together with hundreds of tons of concrete 
beneath which twenty-four of the valiant twenty -eight 
men were buried. For four days the gallant four sur- 
vivors withstood every attack of the Germans, keeping 
up a continuous fusillade until the enemy, not knowing 
— 149 — 



i 



AVoRLD AVak wliat awful damage he had done and thinkini^ from the 
At Its rapid and incessant rephes he had received that the 
Clim.\x ^'^^^ ^^'^"^ ^^^^^ manned by a full ctnnpany. witlidrew in 
dismay .-^^ s^ 

When rescued it was found that the four survivors had 
chmg to the iiaheries around the inside of the fort and 
kept the guns, which had not been misplaced by the fall 
of the inside of the fort, hot every minute day and night, 
to give the enemy the impression of great strength. 
Annnunition was almost entirely gone when the Cier- 
ma US gave up the tight. 

The Boche had broken the British line and might have 
swept on to the English channel, but he did n't know it. 
^ Should it ultimately be decided to remove the twenty- 
four bodies from beneath the mass of concrete at ^loat 
Farm, it was our thought that the ruin should be left 
a^ it is, or was, and across its face an inunense tablet 
placed, upon which should appear the names and heroic 
deeds of the noble twenty-eight to whom Tennyson's 
lines to his gallant six hundred — 

Theirs not to make reply. 
Tlieirs not to reason wli\-. 
Theirs but to do and die. 

apply here e^iually as well as to those fi>r whom they 
were written. 

And into my mind came the words of the lamented 
Roosevelt, who. when asked if he would remove to 
America the body of his son Quentin. shot down after 
desperate aerial battle with three Boche whom he 
might have avoided, replied: " You can not bring them 
up to be eagles and expect them to die like sparrows. 
My own choice is that a soldier, like a tree, should lie 
where he falls I " 

And Quentin Roosevelt sleeps where he fell, his wrecked 
— 150 — 



airpljine marking his gijivo in Knsloni Fraiuv. Our Would War 

parly j^ricvod not lo ho ahio h) iiiid it and (h'op a tear At Its 

and a (Iowcm-. \\u[ [\\c young Ikm-o is neither forgollon 

nor noglocloiL lie is si ill alive in the hearts of the 

Allies and they, and admiring Americans abroad, will 

eternally eover his grave with tears and (lowers and 

wreaths .<5©» .^o. 



Climax 



"y' i# 












' ^,AVV 







151 



( IIAriER XXV 



Windy Corner 




07ie of the Most RepeUent Battle Fields in the War — Literally a 
Swojnp in u'liicli American Boys Slept and on which They 
Fought. 

ilXDY CORNER and Giveiichy had a 
strong lure for me, as the section is a 
])art of Flanders fields and also because 
it is in the Ypres sector, where, as I 
afterward learned, my son first " went 
over the top." To those of us who have 
been permitted to see these dismal 
swamps and water-holes, in which trenches and dug- 
outs were impossible, the wonder is how men lived and 
fought under such horrible conditions. Truth is they 
didn't; they died in vast numbers in the terrific cam- 
paign at this point. JNIen were forced to roll up their 
equipment and, placing it under their heads as pillows, 
lie down in these sloughs to sleep. Sentinels walked 
among them to see that their comrades, in their ex- 
hausted state, did not, while sleeping, sink into the mire 
and smother. Major Furry Ferguson Montague, repre- 
senting the British Ministry of Information, our guide 
on this trif), who had fought desperately at this point 
and been decorated for bravery, interestingly explained 
the story of the Battle of Windy Corner, 
(iivenchy on the La Bassee canal in the heart of the 
fighting zone of the Ypres sector was our main objective. 
Here was the original Windy Corner, the Tommy's 
" shor'cut to *ell," a cross roads that had been con- 
— 153 — 



i 



World War stantly under Geriiiaii fire. Here, too, was the famous 
At Its ^^oai Farm where the tide of battle raged fiercest in the 
Climax f^'^*^'^* offensive in the spring of that year, where General 
Haig sent his famous message, '* For God's sake, 
America, hurry I AYe 're fighting with our backs to the 
wall! " — where General Haig in desperation put into 
action the Thirtieth Division raised in our Southern 
States, and oiu* own New York Twenty-seventh Division, 
the only American troops brigaded with the British in 
northeastern France and Belgium. And there, as I sub- 
sequently learned, my own son, a member of the One 
Hundred Fourth ^lachine Gun battalion. Twenty- 
seventh division, had gone over the top and received 
his baptism of fire, where the Germans in their march 
to the Fnglish channel had liroken down the Allied 
defense, but did n't know it. Four years of fighting in 
this sector had been so stubborn that the line had not 
varied four miles in all that time. 

Over a gentle slope about a half mile from the historic 
]Moat Farm is all that is left of Givenchy. It had a 
church, business places and other buildings, but all 
was gone. All about was bleakness and ruin. A sombre 
padre was digging with a spade in the wreckage of a 
church. We were told that when the storm of fire and 
gas and shell broke over the unfortunate community,, 
several years before, his parishioners, fiying before the 
wrath of the Germans, gave their little treasures, orna- 
ments, jewels and so on to the padre, who would not 
desert his cluu'ch and they were buried by him where 
he believed they would not fall into the hands of the 
Germans. Now he was back to recover them. 
It was of this sector, too, that Lieut. -Colonel John 
INIcCrea of Toronto, wrote his immortal poem, ** In 
Flanders Fields." Both faith and pathos lie in the story. 
Lieut. -Colonel ^IcCrea was killed in battle and now 
— 154 — 



sleeps beneath the poppies about which he wrote so World War 



beautifully in the following stanzas: 

IN FLANDERS FIELDS 

In Flanders field? the poppies blow 
Between the Crosses, row on row. 
That mark onr phice; and in the sky 
The larks still bravely singing fly, 
Scarce heard amid the gnns below. 

We are the dead. 

Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw 

sunset glow. 
Loved and were loved, and now we lie 
In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe. 
To you from falling hands we throw the torch- 
Be yours to hold it high; 
If ye break faith with us who die. 
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 
In Flanders fields. 



At Its 

Climax 







— 155 



C HArPER XXVI 




Huge Out -Door Tank Hospital 

Tniercfiiingh/ Unique Sy.steni of Camoujiaging — Scrccna Made to 
Resemble Tall Rowi< of Trees with Dying Leaves of Autumn. 

FEW miles from Radingliem on our 
second day out, our route took us 
Ihrough the small village of Ems. It 
was headquarters for repairing bomb- 
ing tanks of Allied forces. There was a 
solid fifty acres of these Erankensteins 
in all stages of disrepair. Hundreds 
were beyond repair. In the innnense shops seventy-five 
hundred men worked. Many were Chinese. It was said 
they were expert mechanics, quickly trained to the 
need of the hour. These innnense shops were in charge 
of two young Brazilians, graduated from Cornell Uni- 
versity, who had volunteered into the British service 
in Nineteen Hundred Eifteen. Chinese, they declared, 
were excellent workmen if clearly shown in the begin- 
ning just liow' to do things. They had no initiative, how- 
ever, their chiefs said, and when once taught would 
always follow in the same way. It w^as impossible to 
" un teach " them. 

There were miles of railroad tracks in the grounds, and 
tanks were shipped in and out on low platform cars 
built especially for this ])ur})ose. 

We were all intensely interested to see here also an army 
of Chinese working in an immense building upon a 
uni(|ue scheme of camouflage. It was autumn. Along 



i 



"World AVak French roads at tighting fronts on the side toward the 
At Its nioving German army, miles of screens were put np on 
Clim-\x P^^^^-^ resembhng hop poles. Behind this perfect camou- 
flage AUied armies stealthily moved, unobserved by the 
enemy. Gun carriages and other tighting machinery 
were covered on the top with earth and sods to shut out 
the view of air raiders. Materials upon which these yel- 
low men worked had been taken down from roads at 
the front and were being changed to match the season. 
Bits of Canton tlannel had hitherto been dyed green to 
resemble leaves of trees. Fall was now at its height and 
leaves on trees wei-e turning to gold and crimson and 
pink and yellow, and so these counterfeit leaves had 
been dyed into autumnal hues and were being sent out 
to be put up along active roads in war zones. 
The method of ertx^ting was that every few hundreii 
feet, bunches of these mock leaves were placed so as to 
give the appearance of trees covered with dying foliage. 
Stretches between these apparent trees were tilled with 
a colorless background cloth which did not stand out in 
the atmosphere but which served successfully to hide 
everything going on behind it. In the Ypres sector in 
and about \Vindy C\^rner we saw many miles of this 
sort of stutf to fool the enemy. 

Before leaving home I had betm told of train after train 
being rushed across Canada. A few who had been per- 
mitted to go inside these seiTct trains said they con- 
tained Chinese. Before our party went abroad it learned 
that two hundred thousand Chinese had crosseii Canada 
from Vancouver and were sent to France to do all 
numner of work behind the lines. It was in this way. no 
doubt, that the shops we saw. and many otliers not 
already run l\v women were brought up to full capacity, 
all able-luxiied men of France capable of taking up arms 
being at the front. 

— loS — 



CHAni:!! XX\ II 



LiUe 




Up to Armisiice Day the Scent' Here Was the Mottf Joyous One in 
Our Whole J ournei/— Sights That Brought Tears to the Eyes of 
Some of Us. 

ILLEI What a world of memories that 
word of five letters awakes to us! Three 
days'after the German hordes marehed 
out. after four long and weary years, 
our Editorial band nuirched in. It was 
a day of unbounded joy and triumph 
in this, next to Paris, largest city in 
France. From roof to cellar bunting and French. 
British. Italian. American and other Allied flags had 
been imfurled. Nowhere had we ever seen decorations 
so varied and profuse. In our minds it is an ineti'aceable 
picture. It seemed as though all the inhabitants were 
in the streets, too overjoyed to think of anything but 
their own deliverance. They had heard that a party of 
American editors were coming to town, and in a little 
suburb before we reached the city, buildings had been 
placarded with the words *' Welcome to Our Deliverers." 
The editors coidd not understand what they had to do 
with it. Then we learned the greetings were intended 
for British and American troops who three days agone 
had entered the city and driven out the Bochc; 
Lille was the only place evacuated by the Germans 
without first having destroyed it. President Wilson had 
told Kaiser Wilhelm it would be futile to plead for 
— 159 — 



World War interference on America's part until he stopped destroy- 
At Its iiir^ property, killing children and old people and 
CLm\x t^*^^^i^ii<^liii^g" women. These things Germany promised. 
"J They blew up Lille's great bridges, but this is perniis- 
^ sible in warfare as a military necessity, the retreating 
army being licensed to do acts intended to prevent suc- 
cessful pursuit. 

In the great plaza in the center of the city where we 
stopped to view the joyous sights, our cars were sur- 
rounded by thousands of excited, in some instances, 
almost hysterical people, insisting upon telling us the 
a\\'ful story of their four years of German thraldom. 
As they spoke French, Edward H. Butler of The News, 
Buffalo, who speaks French like a native, acted as our 
interpreter. They told us that the Hun had bled the 
city of all able-bodied men, sent them to Gernuiny 
and forced them to work for the Gernum government: 
that they had carried otf five thousand young girls with 
whom they had lived; that if a girl was good-looking 
she had her choice of working twelve or fourteen hours a 
day in the fields or living in ease with a German officer. 
People with hand carts, and in a few instances, with 
wagons containing all manner of household goods, were 
hurrying about moving back to their old homes from 
which they were driven four years before. On an old 
mattress spread on a pushcart, I saw a feeble old woman 
and at her side a young woman apparently very, very 
ill, being propelled through the principal street by a 
boy of perhaps fifteen years. Mother, daughter and soul 
It was sad. but this was by far the most wonderful, the 
most joyous day we had seen and forced tears into our 
eyes. " Utterly indescribalile; words fail." we said 
in unison. 

Lille is a fortified or walled city of ancient type and is 

crossed by the Douai canal and is one of France's 

— 100 — 



¥ 



most prosperous sections. Living was almost impos- World War 

sible. The (lermans forced many factories and mer- At Its 

chants to continue and then took the income away Climax 

witli them. 

Through many a ruined town in that day's trip we 

passed. Lille was an outstanding oasis in a desert of 

devastation and destruction. Lille is more than twice 

the size of Syracuse. Had the Hun treated Lille as he 

had other cities he had occupied, it would he not at 

all inappropriate to inquire what would he the state 

of mind of Syracusans if some morning they awoke 

to find not a brick upon a brick, the whole a dismal 

heap of stone, brick, mortar, iron and wood as if 

wrecked by some mighty earthquake. 



161 



CHAPTER XXVIII 



Vimy Ridge 




The World's Bloodiest Battle Grounds — More Killed Here Than on 
Any Other Field of Carnage. As Many Casualities of French 
Alone as the Total Army That Fought on Either Side in Our 
War of the Rebellion. 

HE writer's current letter to the Herald 
while there best tells, so far as he is able, 
the story of Vimy Ridge, which had 
l)eeii captured by the Allies two weeks 
before our party's arrival. It follows: 
'' Vimy Ridge marked the crest of Cier- 
man endeavor in the bloody and bit- 
terly conlested i-egion between Lens, which the Germans 
took and held, and Arras, which the Allies had and 
held. It is a sloping eminence of noble contour rising 
from the prevailing ])lains of Central France. The 
ridge proper extends for six or eight miles along the 
slope, and is })robably two or three miles in its widest 
dimension. It is n't much of a hill, as hills go in America, 
but it has distinct topographical proportions and is 
a natural defensive position. 

"It is the graveyard of many valiant soldiers, 
on both sides, and it is, too, the graveyard of any hope 
the Germans ever had of an advance on the middle 
British front. The French lost it early in the war, and 
laid long and determined siege to it. It is said that the 
total number of French casualities in the futile attack 
at Vimy were 215,000. The vast number of French 
— 163 — 



? 



^VoRLD^VAR graves in the area behind \'iniy prove that the losses 
At Its 'were great. There are Canadian and l^ritish graves, 

** The Canadians took \'iniy in the spring ot' U)17. 
They took it at a great eost, bnt they took it. They 
had moved in about October, U)l(), after their great 
expUnt at Passchaendale. The British had failed there, 
and so had the Australians; but the Canadians did 
not fail. It was their superior strategy, perhaps. They 
made a feint in one direction, and engaged the enemy 
there and then sutidenly shift ei,l [o the Hoche tiank 
and had him. 

'* The Canadians modestly say that they had better luck 
at Passchaendale than the others, for the British and 
Australians are tine soldiers, none better. The Aus- 
tralians admit it always. It was said in France that 
they say the Americans often tight as well as they do. 
Higher praise could hardly be given I 
*' The Canadian corps was sent from Passchaendale to 
Vimy and began the long preparation for the surprise 
assault in the spring. There was a lot of timnelling and 
mines and one morning there was a grand explosion, 
and then the Canadians started out, supported by 
some Scotch and British troops; in a few hours it was 
over. The sapper had come into his own. 
*' The American Editorial party visited ^'imy only a 
few days after the Boche had retired from tiring range. 
He had been driven down into the valley beyonil, but 
continued to turn his artillery on \'imy. The Canadian 
and his conn-ades were comfortably quartered, however, 
in the dugouts and entrenchments the Ciermans had 
elaborately built during the years of their occupation. 
The (lernian first captured his hill, or hole, and then 
proceeded in the most painstaking ways to make it 
safe. His favorite abode of security was a dugout. 
— ItU — 



Viiiiy wjis fjiirly «:,()I)Iumc(1 with llieni, Imill into llie World War 
hillside, often of permanent eenient eonstruction and At Its 
always with a view lo rendering the enemy's artillery Climax 
fire inell'eetive by makinj*" it possible and convenient to ^ 
«^o far un(ier<>r()und. I low a man can live in a dugout * 
day in and day out, for months at a time, without 
suffocation or insanity passes all comprehension. Hut 
they did il, and probably thought themselves well 
off — so long as they were safe. Did not men exist 
somehow in the Fhmders line for months and even 
years ? The dugouts of Vimy were palaces of comfort 
beside I he waterholes of Flanders. 

" The aj)proach to Vimy from the west is by Mount 
St. Eloi. One m;iy know that it is a mountain because 
they call it a mountain. It is a hill — an outpost of 
Vimy — surmoimted by a higher tower. The tower 
is a landmark for miles around and was long a pet 
target of long range (ierman fire. They hit it, too, but 
did not destroy it. Then comes Vimy. The background 
is a complicated and extensive system of entrenchments 
with hundreds and even thousands of emplace- 
ments for big guns, and the customary trenches and 
barbed wire. If the (iermans held the Ridge for many 
months, the Allies liad the whole broad expanse of the 
approach; and they made life unbearable for their 
foe above. lie ])aid his respects in his tm-n to the men 
below^ s^ 5^ 

" Down in a little exposed angle of the Allied position 
rested the little village of Souchet. They take the 
curious traveler to Souchet even now to show him the 
ruthlessness of modern warfare. There are many larger 
places than this little town that have been completely 
wiped out, and although Souchet was among the 
first to go, its fame lingers. Where once was a ttiriving 
little city are now a few crumbling walls and indis- 
— 165 — 



¥ 



AVokldWak tiugiiisliablo heaps of debris that once were buiUiiugs. 
At Its The grass had had time to grow over the ruins of former 
Clim\x l^'-^i^^t^^, and the moss had begun to appear on the walls. 
First thei-e was a ruin, and in its train deoay. The 
hand of time is eompleting the wreek made bv man. 
^ '* The party was taken to the top of the Uidge and liad 
luncheon there. It was an excellent meal, eaten with 
relish. The fact is mentioned to show that the mind 
grows calloused from sustained contact with desolation 
and death. AVe were in the midst of ten thousand graves 
and were the sole visible survivors of a deadly struggle 
that had been waged for tifty months. Yet we did not 
fail to respond to the demands of appetite. Well, even 
soldiers must eat, so why shouKi newspaper men starve 
themselves? .<!^ .<i^ 

** Some one led the way to the apex of the Rise, where 
there was a clear view of the valley beyond, with a 
white line marking the (icrman trenches. The feet 
became constantly entangled in wires buried in the 
grass. They were the connnunicating lines c^f the 
advance by the Canadians, Every company conunauder, 
when lie can, leaves behind him a line to lead parties. 
There were hundreds oi them. There were hundreds 
and thousands of shells and cartridges and an occasional 
helmet. Cicnerally the * tin hat * had a dent in it. Its 
tenant had thrown it away perhaps, because he could 
not use it; if there was not a more melancholy reason 
why he was through with it. 

**A low hum came from the distant skies and the tried 
ears of the British otHcers reported that there were 
airplanes somewhere around. Soon they appeared. There 
were nineteen of them, and they were headed directly 
for Vimy Ridge. It might have betMi the Boche but it 
was n't. It was a tleet of Allied Hiers returning from some 
kind of an ex^^liMt over the (icrman lines. They tlew in 

Kit? - 



V shape units of six, in perftvt formation. High above World War 

them in the rear was a single phme, the sentinel and At Its 

guard of all the others. AVhere they had been, or where (^^jj^i^x 

they were going, it was not for the wondering speetators ^ 

to know. But that it was a tine sight they could all ^ 
bear witness." 




-.^S:- 



^/' 



— 167 — 



ClIArTKR XXIX 



St. Mihiel 




Where Our American Troop.'< First Distiiujiiislied Themselves — 
** Vnf rained Yankees " Surprised the (ierman Armij hij Their 
Dash and Tenacity. 

»1IK tnivolcM- in the wake of war may 
view the St. ^lihiel Valley, its rolling 
iireen sweep, water-eoursing glades, 
rod-decked, white-walled farm hnild- 
ings and peaceful ehnrehes and wonder 
that this scene has ever been the drill- 
ground of Armageddon. St. Mihiel will 
seem as remote to such an observer as the Battle of 
Blenheim to the children who found the skull and heard 
their grandfather's lale of the famous victory. 
Here the invader held France in fief hy force for four 
years until the American army, operating as such for 
the first time on French soil, drove out the common 
enemy .^^^ s^^ 

St. Mihiel was in the field what Austria was in war 
politics. The capitulation of Austria was the beginning 
of the end, politically, and St. jNlihiel was the beginning 
of the end in the field. It was the privilege of the Ameri- 
can Fditorial party to observe both debacles more closely 
than would have lieen possible otherwise. 
In this sector was delivered the first ail-American blow 
of the World War. Here, too, is Seicheprey, where 
" untrained Yankees " withstood the first assaults of 
crack (ierman forces bent on terrorizing the amateurs 
in warfare. 

— 1G9 — 



World War Here was Mont Sec, a little Vimy, where the enemy had 
At Its ensconced himseK and commanded all the area around 
Climax ^^^ miles and for years until the Yanks came, kept 

to coming, saw, kept seeing, conquered and kept con- 

* quering until the end. 

A view of twentieth century warfare can be at best 
only impressionable, even to the fighting man at the 
front 5^ s^ 

Even the reputedly iVrgus-eyed press could glimpse 
these moving affairs only as a jig-saw puzzle. After they 
were history they could be viewed as a pageant. From 
the Vosges mountains, from Toule and Luneville, from 
the plains of France farther north and from the camps, 
billets and rest stations of the center of the embattled 
land, from ports of the Atlantic, from the sea itself, men 
rose and came. Pack-laden, pest-ridden, footsore, saddle- 
tanned, dirty, but laughing, cigarette-smoking and 
swearing like boys out of Shakespeare, they can be 
envisioned trudging through rain, on roads for a way, 
then in mud to their knees, on the way to the front. 
Nights they hiked. Days they slept in wet woods, 
within castle walls, in mines, wherever concealment 
from the enemy could be had. The enemy sensed and 
saw through scouts this mighty movement of apparently 
all America, assembling a human battering ram for a 
push with the power of a hundred million bodies and 
souls behind it. But the enemy was reliably informed 
from American headquarters that the attack was set 
for a later date and at another place. 
Your doughboy's big show, as he called it, began at one 
o'clock the morning of September 1*^, 1918. A cataract of 
steel and explosives descended on the German lines. 
Not only had men gone up but animals and machines, 
artillery horses dragging gun-carriages through mire to 
the breeches, ammunition wagons, commissary trucks, 
— 170 — 



ambulances, dragged by human muscle where brute 
and fuel failed. The fighting heart of America was laid 
bare in those nights ahead with none to see except those 
who dog-did-it, worked and fought. 
The danger zone was a moving area to the editors in the 
rear-guard, although it was recommended that a little 
practice putting on gas-masks was not amiss. Within 
eight hours of the zero hour of the early morning attack, 
Americans were putting Thiancourt, Heudricourt, Pan- 
nes and Nonsard on the war map and the cables where 
they had not been for four years. 

From a hill at Hattonchatel, the distinguished strangers 
looked toward the promised land of the American army. 
Fog lifted a little. Sun shone through misting rain. Afar 
rumbled the guns. x\lready it was over like a drama 
after which one tries to picture the actors going on 
moving, living and dying in character. The crash of 
naval rifles, the biggest guns in France, brought over by 
the Yanks, told Metz, only twenty miles away, that the 
Allies and the Americans were coming. 
Overhead droned an airplane, swooping back to Colom- 
bey with its flushed warrior of the sky, fresh from 
chasing the Boche and fanning enemy ears with his 
propeller s^ &^ 

Such was St. Mihiel to the editors. Graveyards of Ger- 
mans, and roadside, cross-marked graves of Allies, were 
passed. Dug-outs palatially furnished, hidden in ruins 
of dwellings or deep in concrete fortifications were dis- 
closed, where the enemy had made himself comfortable in 
carpet slippers and with pipe during his years of tenure. 
^ In a little while, a few weeks, a month, the heroes of 
St. Mihiel were fighting it through the Argonne, where 
American correspondents with the troops described it 
as " hotter than the hinges of hell." 
Then Armistice and a world gone mad! 
— 171 — 



World War 
At Its 
Climax 



CHAPTER XXX 




Breaking the Hindenburg Line 

General Rawlinson Graphically Tells Where the Gallant Twenty- 
Seventh New York and Thirtieth Southern Divisions Went 
Through — Entitled, the General Said, to the Brightest Page in 

the Ilistori/ of the War. 

IR HENRY RAWLINSON, Com- 
mander of the Fourth British Army, 
and the man to whom Sir Douglas 
llaig" entrusted the attaek on the 
Hindenburg line which, in the smash- 
ing, also smashed the German morale, 
told our party that the battle at Guille- 
mont Farm ami Bony will be one of the most splendid 
traditions of America when the story of it is rightly 
written. A few nights later, in Paris, General Campbell, 
*' The Tiger " of England, with whom I shared a box 
in an opera-house, spoke no less enthusiastically of the 
valor of our Twenty-seventh Division on that occasion, 
(leneral Campbell was in full field connnand under 
(icneral Rawlinson of the Fourth British Army and of 
our Twenty-seventh and the Thirtieth Divisions, both 
of which had fought as well with the British up in 
Belgium. And General Rawlinson, showing us over the 
field had pointed out that for two and a half years the 
Boche had been building and strengthening this line 
until he firmly believed it proof against any army in the 
world 5^ s^ 

The Boche knew the vital nature of Guillemont Farm 

just as well as we did. He knew we had to have it, and 

— 173 — 



^ 



World War lie had exhausted his ingenuity in trying to make it 
At Its inipregnable. Line after hne of trenches honey -combed 
Cli]m\x ^^^^ ^^^^^' hundreds of big guns were trained on it; it was 
hterally covered with machine gun nests and barbed 
wire entanglements. It was mined and defended in a 
quite remarkable way. It is a fact that this farm was 
taken and re-taken not less than seven times before we 
finally held it. 

General Rawlinson continuing said: 
" The first break in the Hindenburg line came on 
September "17, 1918, when the Forty-sixth division 
of the Fourth British Army crossed the St. Quentin 
canal at Bellenglise, but the key to that break and to 
the other almost simultaneous break, at the tremend- 
ously fortified village of Bony, was Guillemont Farm. 
^ " You American correspondents," said General Raw- 
linson, " should not pass by this place without hearing 
what your men did here, and what it meant. That is 
why I brought you here. This is where two of your 
American divisions fought splendidly, and where many 
of them died. No troops ever fought more valiantly. 
Inexperience cost them more men than they should have 
lost, but their courage and determination in the face of 
tremendous obstacles was magnificent. What they did 
here will make the name of Guillemont Farm famous in 
American history. It was one of the vital spots of the 
war ,^^«» .<!•► 

'*As you see, this farm is higher than any of the sur- 
rounding ridges for miles. Over there, five miles away, 
was the main Hindenburg line running through the town 
of Bony, which was a regular rabbit warren of concrete, 
Boche dugouts, trenches and tunnels. For two and a half 
years the Boche liad been building and strengthening 
this line, and he firmly believed it proof against any 
army in the world. This place where we stand was the 
— 17-t — 



outpost of the main line. When on September 26, World War 
1918, the commander-in-chief determined that the At Its 
attack upon the hue was to be made, our first job was to Clu^ax 
take this farm because this, as is very easily seen, was ^ 
the only spot from which the main line could be effec- • 
tively shelled at any point where it was not necessary to 
cross the canal. 

" Once your American boys went clear through and 
over the hill, but they failed to ' mop up,' and the 
Boche coming out of his back trenches after they had 
passed, counter-attacked, retook the hill and cut them 
off. Our attack was begun at five o'clock in the morning 
of September '25, 1918, with the two American divisions 
and the Australians. The French were on our right. 
The fight here lasted three days and in the end it 
was the tanks that carried the crest. Your troops had 
to come up these steep slopes from the valley under 
terrific machine-gun fire and they behaved with the 
utmost valor. Knowing full well what the loss of this 
farm meant, the Boche defended it with tremeridous 
force and determination, and it was only really captured 
when the tanks got into the trenches and sat down on 
the machine guns. With this hill in our possession, we 
gave the main line a forty-eight hour bombardment, and 
when our infantry attacked we went through and got 
Bony &^ 5<^ 

"At the same time the other attack of the Forty-sixth 
British division succeeded and the St. Quentin canal 
was crossed, but that is another story. What I wanted 
you to understand was the significance of the Guille- 
mont Farm fight in the smashing of the Hindenburg line, 
and to tell you of the part the Americans played in it. 
Every American should know about it." 
In conclusion the General said : " This, as I have said 
before, and I wish to repeat it, is where your two 
— 175 — 



World War American divisions fought so splendidly and where so 

At Its niany of them died. No troops anywhere ever fought 

Climax '^^^^ valiantly. The line was broken and the Boche has 

to never been the same Boche since; his confidence was 

^ shattered." &^ s^ 

Then with the General, we walked over the terrifically 
torn field, churned and twisted by thousands of shells 
while the ground was still strewn with helmets and 
equipment of American soldiers, to the two x\merican 
cemeteries, where hundreds of American lads who fell 
in this fight that meant so much to the world, lie buried, 
their graves marked by little wooden crosses very close 
together, and tears coursed down the cheeks of the 
General as he expressed his profound sorrow at the mis- 
take made by the Thirtieth Division in which they 
failed to " mop up," were cut oft* for a time and sub- 
jected to a terrific fire from German machine-guns in 
their rear until rescued by the British and our Twenty- 
seventh Division. 

It w.as said at the time of our stay in Paris that the 
Thirtieth Division in the foregoing engagement lost 
eight thousand men, but such figures were no doubt 
very greatly exaggerated. 



— 176 



vrr-^'tt^. 




CHAPTER XXXI 




Two Editorial Casualities 

It is not the Part of Wisdom to Dispute the Right of Way With a 
Lorry — Gave the Injured a Glorious Chance to See the Inside of 
Many Hospitals. 

FTER Vimy came Lens. It had been a 
city of fifty thousand inhabitants. Rich 
coal mines nearby made Lens. It was 
for possession of these the Boche held 
on with undiminished tenacity, paying 
a frightful price. Destruction, the most 
complete we had seen, was here. It was 
not, however, the work of Germans but of the British. 
German troops, only two weeks gone, had held it for 
four years. Lens lay in a natural bowl in the hills. For 
eighteen fierce months Allied troops had saturated this 
bowl with deadly gas, while shot and shell levelled the 
city. Nowhere was to be seen a brick, stone or stick 
above cellar wall. Grimly the phlegmatic Boche dug in, 
lived like wharf rats and helcl on, how the Lord alone 
knows. But he did hold on. When he left, a frightful 
condition was revealed. Cellars were filled with dead 
whose burial was intercepted by the terrific bombarding 
to which the place was constantly subjected. Through 
all of this hideousness and ghastliness, the Germans 
lived, if it might be called living. Royal Engineers were 
striving to make a road through this charnel house. We 
managed to get through, but it was rough going. 
Lens was in a coal mining section, like Scranton, Pa. 
Before he left, the Boche pulled pumps, flooded mines, 
— 177 — 



World War and wrecked machinery. Estimates were that three to 
At Its ^<^ur years and big sums in money and labor would have 
Climax *^^ ^^^ expended before the mines could be re-opened. 
^ ^ Then Arras, where a great cathedral and two famous 
* hospitals had been destroyed, was to be visited. While 
Lens had been taken by the German army the British 
occupied and held Arras. Under Arras are huge sub- 
terranean chalk caverns just like our American Scran- 
ton over the coal tunnels. In these caverns thousands of 
British soldiers lived. By day they were about the 
streets of Arras. At nightfall the mystified Boche from 
airplane and other places of observation could find them 
no more. They had disappeared completely. Where, the 
Boche did n't know. The city was almost surrounded by 
Germans, and it was a known impossibility for occu- 
pants to leave. But with daylight on the following 
morning, the vanished Allies of the i)receding evening 
were on the streets again by the thousands. 
The Fates, however, decreed thai Edgar Bramwell 
Piper, editor of the Portland Oregonian, and I should 
not be parties to an inspection of Arras with its beauti- 
ful old cathedral in ruins. One and a half miles out of 
Arras our chauffeur attempted to pass a lorry at the 
head of a two mile train of automobiles going in to 
battle at the front. Side-swiping the front wheels of the 
lorry, we ran in front of it and then, without hesitation 
or apparent reason, went afield and slammed head on 
into a tree. Every bit of glass in our limousine was 
smashed. Piper received an ugly wound on the forehead. 
The writer's upper lip was split, his nose torn, and a 
deep cut was made on the right side of the head. Our 
chauffeur, although he shrieked and proclaimed offic- 
ially that he was dying, was unhurt. A surgeon of the 
Fourth British Army in the train of lorries ran to our 
assistance, gave us first aid, sent us to a hospital in the 
— 178 — 



* 



outskirts of Arras, where anti-tetanus injections were World War 
given, and then ordered us to a Canadian clearance At Its 
station in Arras. Climax 

I had often read of unemotional or frozen minds of 
aviators when about to face death. It recalled vividly 
to me my own mental operations before my mishap. 
While the tree into which we ran was not more than 
one hundred fifty feet off the road, it nevertheless 
seemed a long time before the smash really came. I 
recall my first thought when we headed for the tree, was 
that the tree and machine were living things, not inan- 
imate bodies, and that they were soon to meet. A thrill 
of joy ran through me as I felt I was a part of a living 
thing that would come off triumphant when the crash 
came. Then, as aviators say, my mind froze. Death or 
injury were thoughts which never entered my 
mind s^ 5«» 

Stepping from the car after the crash, it did not dawn 
upon me that I was hurt until I found blood gushing 
from my cuts. Gazing at our wrecked machine with its 
smashed radiator, front wheels around the tree which 
had prevented the car from overturning, another deep 
thrill shot through me as I said to myself: " Well, old 
tree, we gave you a jolly good jolt, anyway." 
My companion. Piper, wrote afterward: " War is no 
respecter of persons, particularly of such harmless and 
well-intentioned beings as journalistic non-combatants. 
An automobile may not be, strictly speaking, a weapon 
of war; but when it has a mishap in the war area, and 
it is a military car, under military escort, on a military 
highway, and when the occupants are rescued from the 
wreck after a collision, by a military party, headed by 
an army surgeon, and then taken to two military hos- 
pitals to be patched up, it would seem as though the 
two casualties were entitled to wound stripes from the 
— 179 — 



World War British government, in whose keeping they were at the 
At Its time of the accident." 
Climax ^^^er an hour of rest in the final hospital to which we 
^ had been taken, command came that we go into the 
' theater "to be operated on." Why it was called a 
theater, I never learned. Certainly I saw no mimic stage 
there, everything being painfully real and tragic. Oxy- 
gen and ether were given to Piper. The writer had a dismal 
wait of two hours. Why he was taken into the theater 
instead of remaining in the reception room until every- 
thing was in readiness he will never understand. Besides 
listening to his companion's half conscious struggles 
against the administration of the anaesthetic, there 
were the cries of children who had been badly hurt when 
the Germans, in retreating through a little town near 
Arras, two days before, had wantonly shelled it. Only 
old persons and children inhabited the small settlement 
— the young and middle aged were at war. Occupants 
of the little village, wounded or not, fled, or were taken 
to the hospital because it was the only place they could 
find refuge. 

Shelling the little hamlet was an act of fiendishness on 
the part of the Germans, as it, under no circumstances, 
could be construed as serving a military purpose or 
necessity 5«» 5«» 

After the two hours' wait for Piper's surgeon my case 
was reached. Piper having been returned to the ward. 
I refused to be etherized, declaring that if the little 
children to whose heartrending cries I had listened, 
could stand their agonies, I should not complain. The 
surgeon remonstrated but finally sewed me up, taking 
a dozen or more stitches in my various lacerations. Then 
I rejoined my companion in sorrow. Piper, in the 
general ward, where we spent twenty miserable hours 
among shell shocked, gassed, torn and maimed soldiers. 
— 180 — 



f 



^ Noon next day we were told that we could stand the World War 

journey to Rachn^hem and were urged to take it, as the At Its 

hospital was overcrowded and there were a number of (^j^jm^x 

cases of influenza in the ward, and that Piper and I in 

our injured and shocked conditions might easily become 

prey to it. 

We arrived at Radinghem, forty -five miles away, at 

four F, M. after a tiresome trip and we were immediately 

ordered to bed by (ieneral Ilaig's chief surgeon, whom 

the Oeneral had dispatched to Radinghem on learning 

that two American newspaper men, guests of the British 

government, were badly hurt. 

At ten o'clock on the following morning the surgeon, 

after an exhaustive examination, dressed our wounds 

afresh and ordered us sent immediately to Paris, where 

he said better facilities were to be had, adding that 

American base hospitals were conducted by the highest 

medical and surgical talent in the world. A motor ride 

of three hours brought us to Amiens, from where we 

entrained for Paris, arriving at nine o'clock at night. 

Always I shall regard the automobile smash near Arras 

as a piece of glorious good luck, followed by many and 

great compensations, first of which was, it brought to 

me in Paris, my son, who was primarily my inducement 

for making the trip abroad. It also unfolded to me a 

close up view in hospitals where I saw abundant 

proof of woman's wonderful, never to be forgotten 

war work; saw as sublime a spirit and as great heroism 

displayed by the American boy in hospital as upon 

battlefield; saw many examples of Hun wickedness and 

atrocity; saw how selfishness, class distinction and 

religious difference melted away on the part of the 

Allies in a war to make future wars impossible, and the 

world safe for democracy, and, finally, saw why Allies 

won and Germans lost. 

— 181 — 








^l a^j i 



CHAPTER XXXII 



Preparing for Paris 




Finishing Up in Normandy and Belgium — A Fareivell Look at 
Ruined Belgium and Northeastern France. 

OMPLETION of our trip in Belgium 
and Northeastern France on Thursday, 
P'riday and up to Saturday at three 
P. M. when our party took the train 
from Amiens for Paris, is told best in 
letters current on that date to our 
various newspapers, from which this 
chapter is taken: 

" Our trip for the third day to the British front, Thursday, 
October Twenty -fourth, was of unusual interest for the 
reason that it took us through that portion of French 
Flanders and Southern Belgium in which the British 
army had withstood the most violent attacks of the 
Huns. Our first stop of importance was at Ypres. This 
beautiful and historic Belgian city had been so com- 
pletely destroyed that no one of its several important 
buildings can be restored. The magnificent cathedral 
and Cloth Hall are today but huge piles of broken stone 
and there is not a single undamaged structure in the 
entire city. For nearly four years this city had been the 
target for German guns, and our guide, Major Montague, 
was especially qualified to point out to us the interesting 
details of the long fight, as he had for months served on 
the staff of the Canadian General commanding the 
troops at this point. He showed us how the Germans 
had for months held the commanding positions on the 
— 183 — 



World War ridges where they could look down on the British 

At Its trenches and see every move of the Allied troops. 

Climax " ^^'^^^^^ Ypres we took the road to the east over which 

tl the Germans had retreated to INIenin and Courtrai. This 

^ section showed the most terrific destruction of any we 

had seen. There was no evidence that a ^'illag•e had ever 

existed between Ypres and INIenin. Even the very brick 

and wood of which they had been built had disappeared 

in the maelstrom of destruction. But even worse than 

this was the destruction of the very soil. Both German 

and British guns had planted heavy shells so thickly in 

this district that there was hartily a square foot of soil 

that was not a part of a shell crater. Unexploded shells 

by the thousand could be seen over this section, and we 

were assured that hundreds of thousands more were 

buried in the soil, a menace to the Belgian farmer when 

he made the effort to again cultivate his small 

field &^ i^^ 

''The town of Meuin bore mute testimony to the pure 
devilishness of the Huns. This town had largely escaped 
the shells from the guns of both armies, and while the 
walls of practically all the buildings were still standing, 
the roofs, the floors, the door and window casings, and 
in fact everything made of wood had l^een torn out and 
carried away by the Gernums, leaving behind them a 
gutted to\^^l. 

"We were the first civilians to enter Courtrai after the 
evacuation of the Germans, and at this point we were 
between the British and German artillery lines, the big 
British guns being in action behind the city shelling the 
German lines some three miles east of Courtrai. 
" Courtrai had sufi'ered comparatively little except from 
street fighting and the blowing up of bridges across the 
canals. Here was shown evidence of the heavier work of 
the British Engineers in the construction under fire of 
— 184 — 



foot bridges across the canals to permit of the advance World War 
of the British infantry. At Its 

" It was Iiere that we had the privilege of ransacking the (^j^jjviax 
headcjuarters of a German army corps commander ^ 
which showed evidence of having been hurriedly de- ' 
serted. Maps and papers and both private and official 
correspondence were scattered about in wild confusion 
and from these we were permitted to select such sou- 
venirs as pleased our fancy. 

" We ate lunch that day in the public poor cafe of Cour- 
trai, and had about us many of the people of the place who 
were persistent in their demands for information about 
the world from which they had been practically excluded 
for exactly four years. 

" On our way back to the chateau, we stopped at the 
picturesque town of Castle for tea. It is located on top 
of one of the hills peculiar to this section of Belgium and 
as we sat at the tables and looked from the windows 
over the lowlands, Major Norie told us of the many 
days when as a member of a division staff he had sat 
at the same window and watched the German shells 
drop at the foot of the hill, but the range was just too 
far for any of them to reach the top. 
It was eight thirty when we reached the chateau and 
found the usual good dinner waiting for us. 
" We said good-by to Major Norie when we left the 
chateau Friday morning, for, while we were to spend 
two days more on the British front, our last night there 
was to be spent with the troops in the field. 
" Our route for Friday took us to Albert as the first of the 
towns in the fighting zone we were to see on this day. 
From Albert through to Perrone and then on to Roisel, 
the headquarters of General Henry Rawlinson com- 
manding the Fourth British Army. But a short time 
before we reached Roisel a delayed mine, i)lanted by 
— 185 — 



World ^^'AK the Boche before he had evacuated the place, exploded 
At Its and destroyed the road crossing over which we were to 
Climax have passed. ^ 

Co At Koisel we met General Kawhnson, whose head- 
* quarters were in a cleverly camouflaged railroad train, 
and he asked that we meet him on the battlefield of 
(niillemont Farm. Our New York Division and the 
Thirtieth American division fought this battle. 
"All during Friday, we were riding over what had been 
the battlefields of the Sonnne, and words can not 
describe the terrible destruction wrought in this district. 
For mile after mile not a house of any kind had been 
left standing, and in nearly all cases no evidence 
remained that there had ever been houses on these acres 
that but four years before had been counted the most 
productive in all France. 

*' Not only were there no houses but there were no trees, 
no shrubs, nothing living but weeds. The stumps of the 
trees where once had stood beautiful orchards bore 
silent witness of the truth of the charge against the 
Boche that he had wantonly cut down the fruit trees 
as he retreated from this district. 

" The Sonnne fields had been fought over for four years. 
They had been for a short time held by the Germans, 
then for more than three years by the French and 
Fnglish. and then in ]\[arch of this year the Iluns had 
driven the French and Fnglish backward again and 
had occupied the ground imtil Foch had taken the 
initiative and turned the tide of the war. 
" Cemeteries were everywhere; British, French, Ameri- 
can, Portuguese, Belgian and German cemeteries, for 
many thousands of men lie biu'ied on these fields and 
the grave of each is marked by the small wooden cross 
that gives either the number of the soldier or his name 
and regiment. At Guillemont farm there are large ceme- 
— 186 — 



terios wliero lie the men of our own Twenty-Seventh World War 
and Thirtieth Anieriean Divisions, eaeh grave carefully At Its 
designated and recorded by the American graves com- Climax 
mission £^ &^ ^ 

" There was pointed out to us one British cemetery * 
where the Boche had perpetrated a most dastardly trick. 
This cemetery had fallen into German hands during the 
retreat of the Britisli Army in March. As in all other 
British cemeteries each wooden cross had carried the 
name of the soldier buried there, and the number of his 
battalion. While this ground was held by the l^oche he 
had very carefully painted out the name of each soldier, 
evidently for the purpose of depriving the relatives of 
these dead soldiers of the privilege of knowing tlie exact 
location of the graves of their dear ones. Thanks to an 
efficient Britisli Graves Commission every name can be 
restored to its proper cross. 

" Friday night the members of our party spent the 
night at different brigade headquarters of the Fourth 
British Army. In a number of cases the towns in which 
these brigade headquarters were located were under fire 
of German guns during the night and some members 
of the party passed the night in dugouts, 
" Saturday morning the various members of the party 
were gathered together and started for their last day 
with the British army. Less than forty -eight hours 
before the Germans had been driven from Le Cateau, ' 
and were then but a short distance outside the town. 
When our party visited the place the dead had not all 
been collected and buried, but were still to be seen in 
some of the streets, and in the fields at the edge of the 
town. While the majority of these were German dead, 
there were among them some English soldiers as evi- 
dence that the victory of the Allied armies was being 
paid for &^ 54^ 

— 187 — 



AVorldWak " From Lo C'atoau the autos woiv again headed west 
At Its ^^^^^ crossed the Hiiulenlnirg Ime just nortli of St. 
^- Qiientin at the point where it was supposeil to have 
been absohitely impregnable. At three o'clock Saturday 
afternoon, October Twenty-sixth, the party arrived at 
Amiens and took train for Paris." 



Climax 




i ^-^^^^ -'\'.:i.-'-y'^ ■\\\ : \ ^\- 



iss — 



CHAPTER XXXIII 




Paris 

Kditcrrial Casualties Precede Other Members of the Parti/ — Otie 
Goes to a Hotel, the Other to a Hospital. 

NDKR escort of Major Montague, who 
liad placed the rest of our party in 
cliarne of a subordinale, we two edi- 
torial " casualties " arrived in Paris at 
ni.i>lit and went to the (irand Hotel — 
where the French g'overinnent, to 

wlioni the English government had 

kindly farmed us out, had i)rovitled excellent (juarters 
and where the remainder of our group rejoined us a day 
later. A surgeon, whom the government had assigned, 
ordered Piper and me to renuiin quietly in bed for five 
or six days to recover from shock. I stayed indoors until 
evening next day and Piper, whose wounds had mean- 
while become infected, was sent to the First American 
base hospital in the outskirts of Paris for a stay of 
five days ^^ .^^ 

AVhile we were in Paris the French government, which 
bore the expense of our entertainment in France, fur- 
nished a civilian conunittee to look after us. When up 
at French or American hghting sectors, French gen- 
erals and majors were our escorts. 

Early in the morning following our arrival we were 
waited upon by a civil conunittee of the French govern- 
ment and informed we were to command them for any- 
thing we wished and that on the arrival in Paris that 
evening of our companions, the whole program of our 
— 189 — 



Climax 



\VokliAVak stay in Franco would bo takon up and ilotorniinod. This 
At Its oonnnittoo was ooniposod of Lord C^issolross, a roniark- 
ably handsonio follow of porhaps thirty yoars, broad- 
shouldorod. of sploudid soldiorly boarini^. six foot two. 
^ Tho othor nionibor was Haron laioky. small of staturo 
and slondor of franio. 

Lord Cassolross is a son of \aloutiuo C'harlos 
Hrowno. Karl of Konniaro. ownor of tho Lakos of 
Killarnoy and aooountod hvlaud's riohost man. C'assol- 
ross is a man of wondorful porsonality. has oiroU\i tho 
world sovoral timos. is a scholar and a man of many 
attainments. Ho had sorvod throo yoars at tho hoad of 
an Irish rogimont; his shouUlor was shot away in battlo, 
ho was oapturod by Ciornians. holil for oi^ht ilays 
and tinally loft to dio on tho tiold by thoso samo Cior- 
mans. whon thoy woro forood to rotroat. saying ho was 
doomed, anyway, and why wasto otfort, food and modi- 
oinos on him? Ho orawlod throo milos on hands and 
kntx\s back to Allied quarters, was sent to a base hospital 
whore for eight months his life was despaired of. 
Baron Luoky is a nephew oi tho Puke of Orleans of the 
well known Hourbon party in Franoe. who by right of 
suoeession would bo King, should France again become 
a kingdom. The l>uko of Orleans was critically ill of 
pneumonia at our hotel in London, the Savoy, when we 
left it for France. Haron Lucky had served tlnw years 
as a major in tho French army. He was gassed and sholl- 
shockcci and invalided homo ti> Paris. 
This distinguished pair announcoti thoy wore wholly at 
our service. AVe quickly learned that tho French govern- 
ment had selected them for ottico because thoy wore 
accomplished entertainers and because of their personal 
touch with men of atVairs in the French capital. 
Just before leaving London 1 had reoeived a letter from 
Frank J. ^Lirion, formerly oi Syracuse, now of New 
— 100 — 



^ Ork, witli wlioni i li:ul worked ;is ;i in^poiItT on I lie 
Syrju'iiso Slaiulnrd, oxlondini;' an iiivilalioii lo our onlire 
party lo iXo into llaly as liis giiosl and s(h> wlial was 
hoini;' dont^ on I lie Italian fronl. Marion, whose liead- 
(juarlers were at Madrid, Spain, liati, l)eeans(> of iiis 
i;real knowledue of film prodneliou, been seid over by 
I lie American i^overnnieid as Ani(M-iean oflieial photog- 
rapher at Italian t'ronis, jnsi as Lord Heaxerhrook was 
sent into lielginni and b'ranee by England as her re|)re- 
sentative at battle fronts. As we had already visited 
lielginni, lo which country we had no pass[)orts, and 
had also been [>erinilted by our I^'nglish hosts to visit 
AnnM-ican and b'rench points in l^'rance, wt' decided not 
to impost* furlluM- n])on the go«)d nalnre of the {Ministry 
of Information. Tinu' was also an (*l(Mnent lo be con- 
sidered and we, reluctantly, were foi-ced to decline 
Mr. Marion's gracious invitation. 

At Amiens, on my way to Paris, while in a rtvslauraid a 
man in .Vmerican uniform atlractt^l my altenlion. 
.Vecosting him, I learned he was (^iptain \N'illiani 
(irange of Brooklyn. Asked if he had ever heard of the 
One llundrtul Fourth Machine («un Battalion of the 
Twenty-seventh Division, he re{)lied that he had and 
that it was then at rest at Corbie, nine miles away, lie 
named several Syracuse memlxM's but had n't met my 
son (icorge W. lie was first lo inform me that Major 
Chester II. King, of Synicuse, and the One Hundred 
Fourth Battalion, had been frightfully wounded and 
could not possibly live. A hurrii'd automobile ride to 
Corbie l)rought no results, as we were unable lo rtMch 
llie tlelil where the battalion w^as encamped, and Major 
Montague decided, to my utter dismay and disapi)oinl- 
ment, we nnist return at once to Amiens if we wei-e lo 
get our train for Paris that evening. 
The day following our arrival in Paris, through Lord 
— 1!)1 — 



\V()l{Iil)\V.\K 

At Its 

Cl.lMAX 



World War Casselross, who went to General Pershing's head- 
At It8 quarters there, (general J. LesHe Kincaid was reached 
Climax ^^^ ^^^^ telephone at Corbie and sent my son to me at 
^ Paris .^^ .<i^ 

' From the day of onr arrival in London 1 had, throngh 
the Ministry of Information and General llaig and his 
aides, made strennoiis eti'orts to get in toncli with my 
son v^^ »<i^ 

The London Times the day after the Ilindenbnrg line 
was broken by General Rawlinson, told how an Ameri- 
can Machine Gnn Battalion had failed to " mop np." 
was canght in a trap and mowed down like grass by 
raking German machine-gnn tire from pill boxes in the 
rear. The Thirtieth Division, from Georgia, Alabama 
and Tennessee and onr own New York Twenty-seventh 
Division were the only American troops brigaded with 
the Fourth British Army in Belgium and France who 
likewise were the only Americans to light in Belgium. 
Naturally, I felt certain my sign's division was the one 
referred to in The Times and that he was among the 
slain &^ &^ 

INIy great joy can easily be imagined when my son came 
to me in Paris. Before we had gotten in touch with him 
just prior to his arri\'al I had received no word for three 
months notwithstanding my daily efforts after reaching 
London to get into connnunication with him. General 
J. Leslie Kincaid had told him I was hurt in an auto- 
mobile accident, not seriously, but just naturally was 
anxious to see him. Apparently he was shocked when he 
saw me, covered with plasters and bandages, one eye 
closed and one side of my face and head swollen and 
discolored ^»^ s^ 

*' Dad," was his connnent, " they told me you were 
slightly scratched up in an automobile accident but you 
look to me as if you had been over the top." 
— 10^ — 



I replied: "Son, you are in the wicked niacliine gun World War 
service and have been over the top many times, "^riie \t Its 
Fates ti'ied to drown me in a tempest coming over, jind, q. tmax 
faihng in that, whanged me against a tree up at Arras. ^ ' 
Again 1 refused to shuffle off'. Life therefore seems • 
mighty uncertain for both of us. We ;ire now to have a 
week together, l^^t 's spend this week just as though 
there was for either of us no otlier seven days in this 
world." &^ s^ 
And we did. 

I asked him why he had n't answered my letters and 
received this reply: '' For tfie very good reason I have 
received none. The last one was from home many 
months ago." To my further (luestion if fie knew 1 was 
in Europe he told me this remarkal)le story: 
" Captain Hancock came into my tent a few weeks ago 
and asked me liow it happened that my fathei- was over 
here hobnobbing with royalty. I thought lie was josh- 
ing me. Then he fianded me a copy of the London Times 
which liad been dropped from the air and landed near 
him. He picked it up and found it contained an account 
of your visit to Sandringham, to the King and Queen, 
giving all names of your party." 

It was the usual thing it seems to drop news})a})ers from 
airplanes to l)oys in camp and on field, but that this 
particular issue, dropped so casually, sfiould have fallen 
into the hands of an interested Syracusan, seemed to 
me remarkable indeed. 

The clock struck one in a tower across the street. My 
son looked covetously through a wide flung door into an 
immaculate, spacious bathroom with its big, inviting 
porcelain tul) in whicli a few moments later he was* 
splashing to his heart's content. His ablutions over, he 
dressed for the night, threw l)ack the snowy sheets of a 
great, downy, luxurious couch and crawled in, the first 
— 193 — 



"^YoKLD^^ AK time ill more than eight months he had slept in a bed. 

At Its -^i^^^^ soon, no doubt, he hiy dreaming of tlie sloughs of 

Clim\x I^^^rii^iii^ i^^^*-^ 1^1^*^ trenches and dug outs of French 

t, Normandy that had been his night chamber for all these 

* long, bleak, weary months. 

Those of our party abroad for the tirst time were eager 
to compare Paris with London. From what we had read 
and heard of Paris we had visualized it as a gay. wicked 
city witli connnercialized vice everywhere rampant. 
Our preconceived ideas were quickly and thoroughly 
dispelled. Paris had surely lost its former blithesomeness 
and gayety, for which, if we were rightly informed, it was 
noted. Streets were more completely darkened at night 
than in London. Even taxis were not permitted to show 
lights except a faint gleam thrown upon the pavement 
for a few feet ahead. Saloons, drinking places, resorts 
like the famous Maxime's. which in pre-war days, and 
since the war, never closed its doors. wei"e hermetically 
sealed at eleven o'clock. Theaters ran, the theory being 
that war-wrought people must have some form of 
diversion or they would go mad. Spanish intiuenza was 
at its height, collecting frightful toll. Between the acts 
and sometimes diu'ing theni, ushers passed through 
aisles spraying the audience with a supposedly germ- 
killing solution. 

But practically all the wonderful haunts of revelry we 
had been told so nuich about were closed, and gay and 
emotional Paris was thoroughly sobered by the serious- 
ness of war ,«^ .-i^ 

Big Berthas and airplanes had done great damage and 
had terrorized people generally. The Arch of Triumph 
•on the Champs Fly sees had been hit with little damage, 
and it. as well as the Palace of Justice, the Louvre, the 
Grand Palace of Arts had been almost biu-ied behind 
bags of sand to protect them from shots of Big Berthas 
— liU — 



which had narrowly missed several of them. From World War 
famous art ji'alleries, paintings and statuary had been At Its 
removed, no one knew where, and the ^^alleries were Cumax 
closed .'^ {^ 2 

And beautiful Paris, with its wonderful boulevards, its * 
magnifieent parks and parkways and handsome build- 
iuii's, none more than five stories liiyli, seemed to us far 
more solenm than London. 

Perha[)s I he most solenndy sad disclosure a few days 
after our arrival in Paris was news that at liheims, a 
section of France famous for generations as the great 
champagne producing belt, were one hundred million 
bottles of champagne in concrete subterranean ware- 
houses. The territory was a sort of No Plan's Land. 
French held and (lermans shelled it. The French dared 
not attempt to remove it under German guns. 
For seventy-five years sul)terranean storehouses and 
cisterns had been built in hills of this neighborhood 
until they were honeycombed with them, hi the last 
forty years these storing places had been made of highly- 
resistant concrete so that they were unharmed by (Ger- 
man shells. Not until war ceased, however, was this 
precious cache retrieved. It was too late then, to be 
available to the best advantage, as America, for whose 
consumption it was chiefly intended, at pretty stiff 
figures, had already gone dry. ^Ye were told, though, it 
would not be wholly an unmixed loss, as Americans in 
France, as well as troops who remained overseas with 
the Army of Occupation, could tickle their i)alates with 
rare old vintages at extremely reasonable prices. 
Eminent men of France under the French Academy, a 
learned society with distinguished members of many 
professions, feted the editors at the Volney club. Phi- 
losophers, poets, orators were among the speakers. An 
Alsatian poet delivered a classic address of welcome. 
— 195 — 



World War The few of our party who understood French declared it 

At Its ^ masterpiece. It was a warm-hearted welcome to Amer- 

Clial\x i^*'^^!^ ^^^^*^ ^^ reconsecration of France's traditional love 

o for America and Americans. 

^ A ^Ir. Boutroux. Professor of riiilosophy in the 
French Academy, was chief speaker for the societies 
entertaining us. He spoke substantially as follows: 
'* I have always had the deepest admiration for America 
and Americans and especially for their adaptability in 
undertaking" any task whatsoever. This is especially 
true of the American journalists, whose ideals of hero- 
ism and altruism are absolutely of the highest. In 
France, public opinion counts for nuich. In America it 
counts for a great deal, as I understand it, and, there- 
fore, is your obligation all the greater, because you have 
so many depending upon you for guidance and infor- 
mation. In contraclistinction to the press of America, 
the press of (lermany is controlled entirely by the (gov- 
ernment and, I might say, existing in slavery, as it were, 
being subject, as it is, to the jurisdiction of the militar- 
istic factions. America has been of invaluable help to 
France in this present crisis and we nmst bring all 
Germany to her knees and crush the Ilohenzollern, 
penetrate German territory and dictate the terms of 
peace in Berlin." 



— 19(5 



CHAPTER XXXIV 



Marshal Joffre 




7"a/A\v at Xapoleon 's Tomb, Where Story of Lafayette's Love for 
America Was Told — Lafayette Wished to be Buried in 
American Soil and Was. 

HEN our Editorial party visited Mar- 
slial Jort're in Paris, lie spoke fervently 
of his great love for Anieriea, gave us 
all the glory for turning the tide of 
vietory, whieh (though he foreeast at 
that time a very long fight) he declared 
he was sure had turned in favor of the 
Allies, lie trembled with emotion as he asserted that 
two great ambitions remaining with him were, first to 
live to the war's end and then second, to revisit iVmerica, 
travel over it and tell how deeply he appreciated our 
generous, kindly treatment of him on the occasion of 
his former visit and give a soldier's testimony and esti- 
mate of the big part the splendid young heroes from 
America were taking in ending the war. So long as 
civilization endured and memory remained, France 
would love America with a love that nothing could 
alienate. From the immortal Lafayette's day — one hun- 
dred forty years — this mutual love of two great nations 
had existed s^ &9^ 

From this conference a few of us went, under escort of a 
high French officer, to the Hotel des Invalides, which, 
as is generally known to visitors to Paris, is a soldiers' 
home, an arsenal containing all guns captured in 
Napoleonic wars, while in the handsome museum are 
— 197 — 



World War many trophies of combat, principally of flags of con- 
Ax Its quered nations and municipalities. 

Ctimax ^^^ ^^^ stood at the tomb of Napoleon we mentioned 
g Napoleon's great ambition to conquer the world which 
• Kaiser W'ilhelm had set out to imitate. Our French 
escort, who has studied in and taken degrees from Colum- 
bia college and the University of Chicago, resented 
the comparison. Napoleon, he declared, was a great 
military genius and strategist; Kaiser Wilhelm was 
neither. Napoleon loved his men and cared nothing for 
power for its sake alone. Had he subdued the nations 
which he fought, his generals would become their rulers 
under the most liberal form of government. While 
Napoleon would live in history as one of the best 
beloved and most revered sons of France, Kaiser Wil- 
helm's name would go down to posterity as the most 
cruel, the most tyrannical and the most thoroughly 
hated that had ever lived — especially in the minds of 
his own people. It was undoubtedly the life dream of the 
Kaiser to do what he said Napoleon and Frederick the 
Great had sought to do and failed — conquer the 
world 5«» s^ 

In no degree or way did he resemble either of these two 
mighty men. Marshal Foch, although the implements 
of war were in no waj^ similar in the two eras, was pur- 
suing zealously tactics which had marked Napoleon as 
the greatest general of all time. Who could not see in 
Foch's every move (his strategic massing and move- 
ment of his troops, the repeated surprise attacks upon 
his foes, never permitting them to rest for a moment, 
keeping them ever in a state of perplexity, as to what 
was coming next) the shade of mighty Napoleon? 
As we strolled admiringly amid splendors of tomb and 
cathedral, conversation centered upon the bonds of 
friendship and affection existing between France and 
— 198 — 



America. Naturally, the name of Marquis de Lafayette World War 

was spoken &i^ 5«^ At Its 

Our escort, commenting on the general's great love for Clj^^x 

America, inquired if we had heard of his wish, often «, 

expressed by him, to be buried in American soil. Then ^ 

he told us that when the immortal man passed on, it 

was found he had anticipated his lifelong wish by taking 

over to France three big boxes of American earth, in 

which, in accordance with his request, he lies buried, 

in the handsome Picpus cemetery in the suburbs of 

Paris &i^ &^ 




Lafayette, We Are Here. 



— 199 



CHAPTER XXXV 




Paris in Peace and in War 

Gaiety and Merriment Give Way to Sadness and Depression — 
France With Volatile Temperament Could Not Put On the 
Dctcrntincd Stolid Demeanor of the English. 

HE Paris of wartime was not, super- 
ficially, at any rate, the gay Paris of 
peace. The French capital preserved 
^ somehow something of its joy of life. 
Perhaps the presence of my son and 
the sense of our being preserved colored 
the city for us. It was a city of good 
living, although that could be said of any city we 
touched on our travels, for nowhere were we allowed to 
feel the pinch of deprivation the civilian populace 
abroad and at home felt in a measure as much as the 
military &^ &^ 

Perhaps Paris had drugged itself with some elixir 
of victory, some draught of desperation. Faces that 
smiled sadly eddied in the daytime throngs. For every 
family that was reft by war, there hung at some one's 
lapel that kismet family of fantastic dolls, Rin-Tin- 
Tin, the father, Ninette, the mother and Ra-Da-Da- 
Dou, the child. It was an absurdity, a collection of 
cheap cloth or paper effigies with hardly the remotest 
resemblance to dolls, but everywhere recognized. 
Probably gay France laughed at herself for taking 
life, death or war so seriously, for every one said Rin- 
Tin-Tin and Ninette and their little one would win the 
war. It was a brave Paris, with darkened streets of 
— ^201 — 



^VoKlA^^VAK nights, girls luauniug ovory plaoo thoy ooiiUl till, boiub- 

At Its proof shelters yawning nntil the next air-attaek alarn\ 

Clim\x '■^^ bursting Big Bertha shell should bring them their till. 

"t, and life at its most heetio behind shnttertxi restaurant 

^ fronts, where boys and girls qnatfed the eup of pleasure 

quickly, fearing the dregs of death and disillusionment 

tcx^ near .^^ ^^ 

The world has heard how the leader of the Apaehes 
mobilized them into the taxieab brigade that went 
out to die lest Paris fall to *' the dirty Boohe." and how 
they died, as red-blooded a legend as any gory tale of 
crime by savage Apache aborigine. 

How the Latin Quarter was emptied of its students, 
its artists, its models and its hangers-on is familiar to 
all who ran and read in the war. 

^lontmartre was desolate, as the French said, not that 
we went to see if there was any life left in the Black 
C\it yet. or any grist for grinding in the "Moulin Uouge. 
but rather that our informed guides mentioned it in 
passing .^ .^ 

It was as at home where Broadway turned down the 
lights. It was not regulation at Paris either so nuich 
as neivssity. There was no surplus energy for white 
lights .=^ .^^ 

The boulevards sparkled in the robes of fall. .Ml the 
world was there on promenade en- review. The French- 
num took his glass or cup oi black cotfce. grenadine, 
ordinaire or stronger drink and read his comnumique 
as before he read the latest startling news. 
As at New York and at London, one caught more of 
the ftvl of youth at Paris. Youth might be dying but 
youth never said die and was not dead. 
The Seine tlowed on. still French, and ancient anglers 
went out mornings to the banks. Although all the 
world might be coming to Paris, the city renuiineil 

— ^i>e — 



»■ 



stoadt'astly Fivucli. NO clustoritii;- villauos with frockod \VokldAVak 
aiul wchhIoii-sIuhhI peasants iinprossod one as more At Its 
Froiu'h than Paris, allhoiiiili at the capital the arniv n, .^, ^^■ 
uniti>rnis o\ all the world trioudly to hraneo nut^ht ho 
soon on parade. 

Warning was np on ovorv hand against spies. " Dis- 
trnst yonrself! Tlio oneniv's oars are everywhere! " 
read signs that were translated for ns. So Paris liospi- 
tably proviile(i even for the enemies of France, there 
withont nniforms. 

There was something in the air that eonld be sensed 
nowhere exeept at Paris. Perhaps it was some pre- 
science of victory so nearly won after snch hitter 
years .<^ s^ 

^ While cathedrals and nnisenms were n[>holstered 
with sandbags and camontlaged against the spying 
eyes and devastating aim of enemy airmen and the 
fire of Rig Hertha, they stood as lasting momnnents 
to the sonl of Paris. 

^l^issive, s[>acions, colorfnl, the old Frank, his spirit 
of art and his monnments embodying it, gave challenge 
to the forces that wonld crnsh them with hatred and its 
weapons .<i^ .'^^ 

To one knowing Paris, the way she showed her \aried 
luies in war nnist be a study of fascinating ap|)eal, 
worthy of a master pen. To the stranger, es[)ecially 
from a young country of happy history, it was natural 
to ponder on the qualities of a city, almost a nation in 
itself, that had come through such crucibles as the 
revolution, the siege and the bombardment, and still 
remained the same, Parisian Paris. 

The sewers, the morgue, the Bohemian resorts, the 
style centers, the C^hamps Elysees, were not for us, 
bent on seeing the conduct of the war. 
Perhaps what an earlier generation of Americans 
— !203 — 



Climax 



\VoKLD Wak viewed as Paris was not Paris anyway, any more than 
At Its '^ black eye is a face. 

The eity of French magnificence had not yet taken on the 
American aspect it gained with the intlnx of the peace 
^ parties. American gnards were everywhere to keep the 
boys out of mischief. 

With the Armistice, Paris went mail all the world 
knows, with weeping and laughter, wine and crowds. 
To be in Paris then might have btvn ditferent. rather 
than in wartime, workaday Paris, when women ran the 
street cars, the old one tended to the children, mother 
kept shop and every able-bodied boy and man was 
under arms .<i^ s^ 

But to be anywhere alive Armistice night was pleasure 
enough, and we were in London. 



'^04 — 



( IlAl 



M WW 




On the American Front 

lliul CI Real Tanti' of ll'ar and Glad to Cct liaclc lo /*<ir<V Aflcr- 
irurd Kept Fiirflicr Hach From flit' Firing Front. 

^KNKHAl.JOllN F.HIDDLKol riiila- 

/^ (iclpliia, slalioiicd in IahuIou, liad 
invited us hofoir leaving' for Franco 
to s[)on(l a week at the Ainerieaii 
sector under connnand of (General 
IVrshing. Tliis would not permit us lo 
se<' the l^'rench fronts and so we de- 
cided to put in two (hiys to ins[)ect the strictly Ameri- 
can hat tie fronts, and devote the remaining four days 
to French fronts, as we were guests of the l^'rench 
government through courtesy of the British govern- 
ment. Chaumont was general field heaxhiuarters of the 
American Kx[)editionarv Forces. 

We had already visited scenes where the New 
York Stale Twenty-seventh Division and the 
Tliirtieth Division from Southern Stales fought with 
the Fourth British Army. St IMihiel and Verdun for 
four years had been the scene of (German a I tack and 
F^rench tenacity and resistance. I.ieutenanl l\Migord 
for France and INlajor INIontague for Fngland cscorle<l 
our party to the American front. Perigord is the bril- 
liant lecturer who toured America on behalf of our 
Third Liberty Loan. Neufchateau was reached first 
night, many points of interest meanwhile being viewed, 
ami next day the whole American sector was traversed. 
(\>lomby was a ])oint of interest as an aviation section 
- ^05 — 



World War from which nearly all our American fliers who fought 

At Its in t^^ ^^ar went out. A demonstration was made for 

Climax *^^ benefit of the visitors. Anti-aircraft guns were 

to demonstrated, but it was freely admitted that their 

* efficiency had proved disappointing. 

Other places of interest as fought over for four years 
were Pont-a-Mousson, Seicheprey, Thiaucourt, Pannes, 
Nonsard, Heudricourt, Les Eparges, Vigneulles and 
Beaumont, all of which were visited. Constant firing 
by the Germans dropping a shell here and there near 
us made Paris seem safe and dear, and afternoon found 
us bound there as fast as we could go. 
Domremy, near Neufchateau, where Joan of Arc was 
born, was a point of especial interest to the editorial 
excursionists on the way back to Paris. Joan's home is 
just as it was five hundred years ago. There are 
shrines to her memory everywhere. A heroic statue is 
in the court in the center of the little settlement. 
Indeed the French country homes are about as they- 
were in Joan's day — rooms dark and cold and unin- 
viting. Domremy is well worth seeing, however. 
^ A motor drive to Chaumont was taken, after which 
we entrained for Paris. 



206 



CHAPTER XXXVII 




Fiendishness 

Wild Riding Through Ruined Villages, With a Gruesome Experience 
111 r own in — Farewell Trip to the War Zone. 

EFORE leaving Paris for a farewell 
)^ trip along French battle fronts, Rae 
of the St. Louis Globe Democrat, 
commiserating Piper and me on account 
of our accident, said we had some 
^asure of comfort in the thought that 
IS our sons, who were 
only ones from the actual fighting forces. Piper 
went that day to the American front, which hitherto 
he had been unable to visit, while I went with Rae, 
Butler and Young to the French front, our party 
having already been over the American sector while 
Piper was in the hospital. 

^ On such occasions it was not possible for me to take 
my son. General Pershing, as mentioned elsew^here, 
had issued orders that his men were not permitted to go 
to Paris. As this rule was modified in my son's case, 
when his permit read " Paris only," for him to have 
left Paris and gone elsewhere without special permission 
would have subjected him to a charge of desertion. 
Further, as he was notified before coming to me that 
he had been promoted in rank, any transgression of 
terms of his leave would nullify his scheduled pro- 
motion &^ &^ 

Lord Casselross offered him a compensatory balm, 

agreeing to take care of him for the day by giving him 

— 207 — 



World War two of the best meals to be had in all Paris — a consider- 
At Its ation which loomed big to a boy whose trench hunger 
Clim\x ^^^ ^^* ^^* been fully appeased. 

\^ Our party left Paris for Xoyon on a very early train. 
^ Lieutenant (Count) le ]Marvis representing the French 
government had us in charge. Perhaps fifty-five or 
sixty years old, the Lieutenant was gray, florid and 
stocky. Before 1914, a prominent horseman, he had 
sold pedigreed horses to kings and other royalty 
throughout Europe and dealt also in race horses. 
Because of his great knowledge of them, the Count was 
now buying horses for the French government for use in 
the war. He is very wealthy, kindly and cour- 
teous 5«» 5^ 

Morgan, the Associated Press man in Paris, was invited 
to go along, an invitation which he readily accepted 
as he knew the capabilities of our noble host. On the 
train the Count opened and spread before us in the 
compartment, one of the best lunches we had had, and 
none that we had eaten since our arrival in Europe 
had been ordinary— pheasant, chicken, fruit and the 
rarest old wines &^ &^ 

At Noyon, where we quit the train, three French 
limousines awaited us, and we began our rapid ride 
along the French front. From the train window, as we 
neared Xoyon, we saw where General Joffre stopped the 
Boche in 1914 in his rush to Paris. A very intelligent, 
young French officer with whom we had shared our 
compartment on the train, an acquaintance of the 
Count, amply repaid us for his seat by vividly describ- 
ing the battles in and about Xoyon where trenches, 
entanglements, and dugouts were both extensive and 
numerous. X'oyon, the birthplace of John Calvin, was 
in ruins. A beautiful old Twelfth Century cathedral was 
about one-half destroyed. So was the Hotel de Ville, 
— 208 — 



set on fire by the Boche before evacuating the city, World War 
another mute evidence of his vandaHsm. At Its 

From Noyon, we proceeded to Chauny. CiviHans were Clim\x 
here moved to one part of the city and the balance ^ 
of the town was destroyed. A big fertihzer works, • 
said to be the largest in Europe, was deliberately 
wrecked &^ &^ 

From evidences still remaining it was about the magni- 
tude of the Solvay Process works at Syracuse. Through 
Moy and Le Fere we went to St. Quentin. Roads here 
were shell torn and mine rent with many bridges blown 
up. Many times we narrowly missed automobile acci- 
dents by a hair's breadth. Drivers were reckless, with 
utterly no regard for human life. After my little episode 
on the road to Arras it will be understood I was a bit 
nervous over wild automobiling and believed myself 
unduly timid until I consulted my companion, Rae, 
when we were safeh^ back in the hotel in Paris. He 
declared, " Never again for me. Several times I thought 
we were goners and it will take several weeks for me to 
recover from the bruises and bumps received when we 
were jostled from one side of the car to the other." 
^ xA.t St. Quentin, we had an opportunity of seeing, 
first hand, more evidence of Hun inhumanity and lack 
of respect for religion and death. A former convent was 
used by the Boche as a military hospital and is now 
continued as such by the French. Underneath, 
what was the chapel when the building was a convent, 
is a crypt in which were buried nuns who had died in 
the service of the convent. The bodies were buried in 
rows one above the other, much as they are laid away 
in vaults. One of these interstices was opened, the lid 
of the coffin removed and the body, or what was left 
of it — it having lain there for sixty years, according to 
the inscription on the tablet at the head of the casket — 
— 209 — 



World War dragged out in a search for copper or other vahiable 

At Its n^^tal which the Boche needed. Burial of these meek 

Clim\x '^^^*^ lowly servants of the Master was simple — a plain 

^ to board box, tin- or zinc-lined, of no account to the ghoulish 

* Germans, The ghouls had opened another chamber and 

found the same cheap make of casket. No one, as a 

war necessity, would have blamed them if copper were 

there to take it away. But what would any man with 

red blood in his veins and a heart in his breast have 

done? Woidd n't he have tenderly put back the remains 

of these poor servants, who in life thought only of the 

good of others, sealed up their resting places and left 

them as if they never had been disturbed? What did 

these fiends do? On the cold stone floor of the crypt 

they left the remains exposed, skull bones and grave 

clothes, for that is all that remained. The words of the 

great Balfour at a dinner given us in London two weeks 

before came vividly into my thoughts; " Brutes they 

were when the war began and brutes they will always 

remain." &^ &^ 

Next we drove through Ham, Xexler, Chaulnes, 
Quesenby and Roye, all showing the same depressing 
desolation and devastation, Montdidier, of recent fame 
because Americans so lately and at fearful cost had 
made a wonderfid record there. 

After one hundred -forty miles along this wilderness 
of ghost-like, ruined villages, our minds sickened from 
the sights and our bodies sore and lame from reckless 
automobile driving we concluded our ride along the 
British, American and French fronts, glad in oiu" 
hearts that om- inspection of scenes of devastation 
and destruction was ended. 



^10 




^.v 







CHAPTER XXXVIII 




President Poincare 

Closing Events in Paris and a Return to London — Interesting 
Information Obtained in Crossing the Channel. 

|E had been told, on meeting them in 
London on their way out, that our 
predecessors, the magazine editors, 
had had one hundred twenty-five 
banquets during their stay. It was, 
therefore, our aim to outeat, as well 
as otherwise outshine them. Up to 
Paris we were ahead of their record. Our Paris hosts 
became- co-conspirators, determined that when we 
left France our record should beat that of the maga- 
zine men by a big margin of safety. 
There were dinners by art societies, by the national 
agricultural society, by officers of the French Republic, 
dinners at the Grand Hotel, at the Cafe de Paris, dinners 
to the right of us, dinners to the left of us, dinners all 
'round us, by all manner of social, literary and poli- 
tical organizations, so that when we left Paris our dinner 
average or record was thirty per cent above that of 
our magazine predecessors. 

We went to Versailles to inspect the fine, stately, 
historic old palace in which meetings at the time were 
being held to determine the exact form of an armistice 
the Allies would present for Germany's signature, a 
few weeks later. 

President Poincare had bidden us for an afternoon, 

adding that as pressing matters were weighing heavily 

— 211 — 



World War upon him he would much prefer to meet us informally 
At Its i^ ^^^ President's mansion, or executive mansion, as 
Climax Americans would call it. It was our last important 
to function in Paris. Before we reached the inner chamber 
^ we had passed through room after room in which were 
generals seated at desks. It was noted that most of 
them were old and gnarled and bronzed. Our ushers 
said all were more than seventy years, some upwards of 
eighty, and all had seen much service and had distin- 
guished themselves on many a battlefield. Having done 
their share they were now pensioners of a grateful 
government &^ &^ 

President Poincare spoke to us for a few minutes in 
English, but as his mastery of that tongue was not then 
complete (it has since been perfected) he continued 
in French, which was given to us through an interpreter. 
He spoke of the undying love of France for America, 
which he said antedated the visit of the Marquis de 
Lafayette to America. In all the years between, that 
love had grown, had been greatly intensified. America, 
fighting side by side with France upon French soil, was 
a crowning glory for which, on behalf of the Republic 
whose chief he had the honor to be, he wished to express 
profound gratitude. There was no doubt whatever 
that America with her illimitable resources, men and 
money, was winning the war. 

The American soldier was paid a high tribute. We 
should not, however, underestimate the strength of the 
Prussians. They had put together the most wicked, 
yet the most powerful fighting-machine, trained for 
deadly efficiency, in the history of the world. Used in 
an unworthy cause it could not, it must not, triumph. 
War might not end for a year, perhaps a year and a 
half, but end it must eventually with Allied armies 
gloriously victorious. 

— 212 — 



We left Paris for London Monday night, November World War 
fourth. Crossing the Enghsh channel, Sir Campbell At Its 
Stuart whom we had met in London at all our big Ch^l^x 
social functions, asked me to share his quarters with ^ 
him, as several of our party had become sea sick and * 
he feared I might be a victim, if I remained with them. 
Sir Campbell was returning from the conference at 
Versailles, where he went with Viscount Northcliffe, 
with whom he was associated. Since then he has 
become business head of Viscount Northcliffe's vast 
newspaper and magazine publications. 
" I tell you, O'Hara, this damned thing will blow up 
within two weeks," he said. 

I called his attention to the fact that we had prac- 
tically just come from President Poincare, who said war 
would last a year or a year and a half longer and that 
King George made it longer still and that Joffre and 
other men of prominence had made it much longer. 
"I don't care," he remarked "just set it down in 
your diary that I, Campbell Stuart, crossing the English 
Channel on November fifth, 1918, told Mr. O'Hara that 
in two weeks war would end." 

As the world knows now. Sir Campbell was a prophet. 
After all, this is n't such a big world! As we neared the 
English shore Sir Campbell introduced me to a young man 
in an American uniform, rank of captain, who. Sir 
Campbell said, was a trusted Allied courier carrying mes- 
sages between Paris and London that were too secret 
and confidential for telegraph or telephone or mail. He 
was taking the place of an English ofiicer who had 
fallen ill of Spanish influenza. Told by our introducer 
that I was one of the party of visiting editors, the mes- 
senger inquired what State I came from. 
" New York State; Syracuse." 

"Why, that 's strange," he commented. "I played foot- 
— 213 — 



World War ball with your University, in Nineteen Hundred Twelve 
At Its *^^' Nineteen Hundred Thirteen." 
Climax ^ I'ecalled some of the games of those years and inquired 

to what position he played on our Syracuse University 

' team &^ &^ 

" Oh, I did n't play on your team — against your team. 
I played with the celebrated Jim Thorpe of the Carlisle 
team." s^ *•► 

He was an Indian. Except for the fact he wore his hair 
pompadour, a characteristic of his race, and, upon close 
scrutiny, there was the Indian shape at the top of the 
head, one would never suspect his race. He had 
graduated with highest honors from the Indian Uni- 
versity at Carlisle, Pa. 

I left Sir Campbell in London at five o'clock that after- 
noon. Less than a week later I was one of the joyous 
millions to celebrate the signing of the Armistice. 



214 



PART VI 



Armistice 



Glorious, Triumphant Allied 
Demonstration 



General Smuts and Others 
Give Dinners 



Then Editorial Party Joyfully 
Returns Home 



(H AFTER XXX IX 



Uplifted in Ecstacy, the Old World Metropo- 
lis Was Thrown Into a Great Tumult 
When Germany Yielded 

A Great Thrill and a (hipping Thrall Seized London on Armistice 
Day — Let TlerselJ Loose in a Manner Hitherto Unknown in the 
Whole Hi dory of the British Nation. 

K)N1)()N had never before beheld, nor 
will aj>ain behold, such a day! British 
ealni and stolidity were smashed to 
smithereens in a general paroxysm of 
joy following announcement that the 
x\rniistice had been signed. A delirium 
of delight, to reign uninterru])tedly for 
a whole week, arose in this old world metropolis. It was 
a scene unprecedented in the wliole history of the nation 
and became graven unforgettably upon the memories of 
seven million frantic humans who witnessed it. 
Premier Lloyd (leorge caused to be bulletined at Buck- 
ingham Palace, a typewritten copy that hostilities had 
ceased and Armistice had been signed. Crowds came 
from every angle. There were calls for King George. In 
the uniform of an Admiral he appeared upon the bal- 
cony. The Queen, in fur coat, bareheaded, was witJi him. 
Then came the Duke of Connaught and Princess Mary. 
The Irish (iuards band played " liule Britannia." 
People sang and waved flags. The King removed his cap 
and was cheered deafeningly. A groan foi- the Kaiser was 
proposed and given. There was a trium])hal procession 
— 217 — 




AVoRLD War a little later, with Qlieeu ^lary and Princess ]Maiy 

At Its riding with the King. The Strand and tribntary streets 

(-•j^jj^j^-j^ began to choke. Mnltitndes assembled at Victory 

^, Memorial, at Admiralty Arch, at Ludgate Circnsand at 

* the ^lansion Ilonse, where the Lord ]Mayor. in ofHcial 

robes of black and gold, was on hand to receive King 

and Qneen .<i^ .<i^ 

The Stranik where it ends at Trafalgar Sijnare. as soon 
as the royal procession had passed, received from con- 
trilniting streets an overwhelming ontponr until the 
wonilcrful old thoroughfare was tilled to sutVtu'ation 
with human tiotsam and jetsam. It seemed as if thou- 
sands nnist be trampled inider foot and crushed to 
death. Police were powerless to stem the mighty human 
tide. Somehow or other, lu>wever, utUhing serious 
happened .<^ .-^^ 

People literally went wild. Streets seethed with a howl- 
ing, happy, hilarious, hysterical mob. The Hriton was 
shaken by ]>eace as he had not been and could never be 
by war. Four years of pent-up anger and subdued 
emotion, bnnight about by a most wicked and awful 
war, were forgotten and for once in his life he let him- 
self go and gave way to jubilation. 

Barriers came down with a crash ixnd a bang. \o 
American in any American city could luive gone crazier. 
It was passing wonderful the shouts of the nniltitudes 
as they sought to force themselves through the stilling, 
choked streets in a wild, triumphal rout of victory. 
AVhen at ten o'clock gims boomed the annoimcement : 
waiters, chambermaids, guests, bell boys all rushed like 
mad out of hotels. Clerks, janitors, shopkeepers dashed 
out of shops, owners or managers being left quickly 
alone in sole possession of thousands of dollars worth of 
merchandise unprotected and exposed from the streets 
through open, wide flung doors. Women in munition 
— '■2 IS - 



plants ill the outskirts of the city tlirow down their World War 
work. Everybody who was doing anytliing just threw At Its 
it into the air and sprang for tlie street, wliere all joined Cum^x 
the singing, shouting throngs that surged up and down. ^ 
All work was suspended, including public business, and ' 
London gave itself up wholeheartedly and unrestrain- 
edly to rejoicing. 

Most wonderful of it all were the woiiien. Thousands 
upon thousands of them rapidly filled the streets like a 
torrent. They captured and coininandeered tram cars, 
taxis and other vehicles of all descriptions, upon which 
they piled in unbelievable numbers. 
Police authorities were swept aside. The London 
'* Bobby *' stood stunned, while women sat in human 
pyramids upon tops of automobiles, upon radiators and 
upon mudguards. They clung to steps and footboards, 
they jammed streets, they laughed and screamed and 
sang, wept with joy. 

For four years they had " carried on," as the British 
say. but when the end came at last and victory was won 
they broke &9^ *•► 

For days the nation's nerve had been taut and while the 
Armistice luing fire the tension was terrific. Saturday 
and Sunday before the end on Monday, from all prov- 
inces people poured into London until standing room 
was at a premium. Thousands were unable to find beds 
or to get into hotels or boarding houses. Thousands 
camped throughout the night on the Thames Knibank- 
nieiit and waited for the hour to strike, and when it 
struck, London, for the first time in its history, gave 
completely away to emotion. 

Girls of high degree and girls of low degree joined like 
sisters. All class distinctions were swept aside in the 
joyous flood. Women flung their arms unreservedly 
about the necks of any man who wore khaki, it made no 

— -21!) — 



AVokldWak dirt'orouce whether he was an otHcer or a private. 
At Its -^ '^^^'^ "^ t^^*^ iiniforin of a Savoy chamberinaid kwped 
Climvx ^^P*^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ board of a ear in whieh rode a staff 
\* general and hugged him. and the statf general laughed 
^ with glee and patted her eheeks and squeezed her hands. 
C[I British eaptains and British majors lost that liaughty 
stare and became Ih\vs, laugliing, happy boys. 
The city literally bla/.ed with tlags. Tlie British I nion 
Jack, of course. })redominated, but up and down the 
Strand were hundreds of American soldiers, and Ameri- 
can civilians including the twelve American publishers, 
guests of the British government, joining in the big 
celebration, waving the Star-Spangk\l Banner and 
shouting with the Britons. 

Everybody loved everybody else. AVherever you looked 
you got an answering laugh and a whole-hearted 
response, and the crushing masses of humanity on the 
streets and in the hotels, were for the time being, all 
brothers and sisters. 

It made no ditl'erence whether you were Knglisli, 
American, French or Italian. For once the Briton tiurw 
aside his stolid cahn. 

Far down the Strand, where stands England's great 
established [church, when its rector could collect 
his wits after his tirst big shock of surprise, silver chimes 
pealed forth the glad tidings tliat war was at an end. 
Almost directly across tliismain thoroughfare of London, 
in a beautiful old Catholic cathedral, bells rang out in 
unison in wonderful public piva us of joy and exultation, 
while within the walls of these sacred edifices, services 
of prayer and thanksgiving in the one instance and 
sinuiltaneously jubilee masses were chanted in the other 
throughout tlie livelong day. It was indeed a most 
solenm, inspiring and impressive exam]>le of a nation's 
recognition of (lod. 

— 'iiO — 



Tlu' (lay was tho <;!vat(\sl, llio most joyful, llu' most 
woiulcrriil, London liad cvcv known. All day pandemo- 
nium kopt up. For Ihc first lime in four years, irecd from 
fear of air raids, London drew hack ils blinds at night 
and turned on ils lights. The inky hiaekness of the 
streets disappeared and pent-up feelings of a great 
nation, that had suffered terribly and fought splendidly 
to a vietorious finish, were released and swe])t every- 
thing l)efore them. 



Woiii.dWak 
At Its 
Climax 




221 — 



^§i OL!je#^laf 



CRESHAM RSUVW , 



LUNCH 
EON. 



The Eleventh Hour I 



NEW PEACE DELEGATES 

ON THE WAY 



Time for Acceptance Expired 
at 11 a.m. To-day. 



OTEJISION MAY BE ASKED. 









> itivip.cUi driv« Tl. < 






PAJus ON nrrof. 



HOHENZOLLERNS 

IN EXILE. 

Kumt'* Flight to 
Holland. 






GERMANY FOLLOWS RUSSU. 



Mm MIT Mcr. 



SOLDIERS OISAMKO. 



Insert Mow .ihoirs extract from itifiJf 
page of Lotuhin Star 



ARMISTICE Sl€513> 
TO DAY- 



fULL DETAILS^ Of SUMNDH? 

:jgS] THE SYRACUSE HEB .U.D 5 s^ 



I PRESIDENT WILSON 
L^PRQCUUMS PEACE 

Wuhinffton, Nov. II. — Pr«si<l«nt Wilson issued a formal proclamation at 10 o'clock this morning an> 
souncinf lh.it the armistice with Germanv had been signed. 

The prtjclamation follows: 

"My Fellow Countr>-men — The armistice was signed this mominf- Ever>-thing for which America fought 
lias been accbmplished. It will now be our fortunate duty to assist by example, by sober friendly counsel and 
py- material aid in the esUblishmcnt of just democracy throughout the »for!d. WOODROW WILSON." 



mm) mmm^ m 
m mm m is okea 



t^'owtM Mi* l*c*»r I 




JMCIllESCONGflESSMIM 
OfG[flMANY'SCOMP[[I[SUefi[NOFR 



n.> WT »T(U«II 



____^ ] Hert Art the Terms \ 



Two Sews papers on Armistice Day 



CHAPTKH XL 




Hero of Boer War 

A Statefiman an Well as a Soldier, IVait of Great Aid to England, 
Especiallff in Last Three Years of War. 

1 1 REE nights after the Armislico, Rij>ht 
lion. J. T. Snuits adcknl one more to 
I he one hnnch-ed twenty and odd (Hn- 
ners given ns. Altliongh last, it by no 
means was least, a signal honor we 
fnlly ai)])reeiate(l. (leneral Snnils, hero 
of the lioer war, chairman of England's 
War hoard, diplomat, high in (Ireat Britain's eonneils, 
was the man afterward credited with luiving drawn 
England's peace terms for the Versailles conference, lie 
proved a most congenial host. This social fnnction at 
the Savoy that evening stands ont in my memory. The 
whole affair was as democratic and informal as it was 
gracions and gennine. It consisted of a heart to heart 
talk with a hunch of news])aper publishers, who were 
charmed with his l)rilliancy, his candor, his sincerity 
and his apjiarent desire, now that war was over, to repeat 
for all the nations of the world some of the wonderful 
achievements which he had accomplished for his South 
African re})ul)lic. 

Although much of his excellent speech bore upon the 
League of Nations, (with which later he had so nnich to 
do), it is such a classic document it is herewith repro- 
duced in its entirety: 

" Let me congratulate you on your good fortune in 

being here on this supreme occasion. I am glad that I 

— 223 — 



World War have been privileged to be in this country at the coming 

At Its of peace and to see the temper and l>ehavior of this 

Clim\x 8'^^^^^ people at such a time. Remember that tliis people 

^ ^ has borne unexampled burdens for nearly four and a 

^ half years. They have striven and fought and labored 

in a war effort which has no parallel in history. They 

have suffered in l)ody and soul. The iron has gone into 

their soul. And today you see them rejoicing in the same 

great spirit in which they have labored and 

suffered ."^ s^ 

" Not a tinge of bitterness or vindictiveness mars their 
rejoicings. In this solenni hour of joy and gratitude all 
the bitterness of the past has died out of their hearts. 
No hynms of hate, no trampling on a prostrate foe. 
" It is not merely their sportsmanlike spirit, which has 
seen them through the darkest hours of this war, but 
it is more especially that depth and breadth and sanity 
of human nature which shines through their history as 
it shines through the plays of Shakespeare. I have had 
my little differences with the British people as you 
have had yours; but let us freely and frankly admit 
that they are a great people, and their sanity and free- 
dom from petty vindictiveness are not the least of their 
great qualities. 

"What an awful doom has come over Germany! The 
terribleness and fearfulness of her tragedy is enough to 
purge our souls of all petty and selfish feelings. What a 
price she has paid for her ambitions and her crimes! 
\Yorld power or downfall! It has, indeed, been downfall, 
but what a fall was there! It is the most a\\'ful lesson of 
history. ^lay its warning beacon light blaze into the 
most distant future of the world. This is what we have 
fought for — that the fate of Prussian militarism might 
be the most awfid and solenm judgment of history. And 
now that the task is done, let our thoughts turn away 

o^-i^ 



from destruction and punishment to the great creative World War 
tasks aliead of us. At Its 

" It all depends on the spirit in which we approach the (^le^ax 
great work ahead of us. The English people and their ^ 
partners in the British Empire entered into this war in ' 
a spirit of exalted moral idealism. To defend the small 
and weak, to champion the public laws of Europe, to 
establish freedom; such were the avowed objects with 
which we went to war in August, Nineteen Hundred 
Fourteen. And when the great American republic joined 
us in the titanic struggle it was not only with material 
weapons, but with all that moral reinforcement which 
came from the splendid vision and moral enthusiasm of 
President Wilson, speaking on behalf of the people of 
the United States. His was the great vision of a league 
of nations and of world organization against reaction 
and militarism in future. The world had to be made safe 
for democracy in a great organization which would be 
strong enough to guarantee the future peace and free- 
dom of the world. It is this moral idealism and this 
vision of a better world which has upborne us through 
the dark night of this war. 

'* Through all its ups and down, its awful setbacks, its 
harrowing alternations of hope and fear, we drew 
strength and courage from the cause for which we were 
fighting and the great hope for the future. And now that 
the victory has been won, it is alike our duty and our 
interest to remain faithful to that cause and that hope; 
to see that our victory does not merely end with the 
downfall of Prussian militarism, but that the organiza- 
tion be established which will secure us against a recur- 
rence of such disasters in future. We entered into this 
struggle and persevered to the end because we were 
profoundly convinced that the fate of Europe and the 
future of the w^orld were at stake, and the same convic- 
— 225 — 



World War tions brought America into the war in spite of her 

At Its Monroe Doctrine and the most cherished historical 

Ct tmax traditions. And for the present and the future, just as 

^ much as in the past, our main concern and preoccupa- 

* tion nuist be the saving of Europe for the future of the 

world &^ s^ 

" Her position and condition today are tragic in the 
extreme. The exhaustion and sufferings of the war have 
reduced her to a state which can not but cause the 
gravest concern to all thoughtful people. I fear Germany 
has bulked too largely with us. Do not let us fix our 
gaze too exclusively^ on Germany at the present time. 
The dimensions of this great tragedy go far beyond 
Germany. In this solemn hour let us think rather of 
Europe, of broken and bleeding Europe, the mother of 
our common civilization. The organism of civilization 
can only bear a certain strain, and I sometimes fear the 
strain which has been put on it by this war has brought 
it perilously near the snapping point. The loss of life and 
property, the mental and physical agony, the accumu- 
lated effect of years of under-feeding or downright 
hunger — all these and more — have combined to pro- 
duce a state of affairs closely bordering on the dissolu- 
tion of corporate state organization. 
" The indescribable conditions of Russia are rapidly 
spreading to Austria. In Germany, too, the danger 
signals are up, while in some of the small neutral 
neighboring states the situation is causing grave con- 
cern. It is not merely that thrones and empires are fall- 
ing and ancient institutions suddenly collapsing; a 
whole world order is visibly passing away before our 
eyes. And the danger is that things may go too far and 
a setback be given to Europe from which she will not 
recover for generations. The evils bred by hunger 
threaten not merely old institutions, but civilization as 
— 226 — 



such. In this hour of victory, which was given us for World War 
great opportunity, we can not look on unmoved at the At Its 
tragic and pitiable situation. W^e have saved the soul of Climax 
civilization; let us now proceed to care for its sick body. -^ 
As we have organized the world for victory, let us now ' 
organize the world against hunger. That would be the 
best way to bind the wounds of the nations and to pre- 
pare them for the new order of international good feel- 
ing and co-operation. Not only the liberated territories 
of our Allies, not only our small neutral neighbors, but 
the enemy countries themselves require our helping 
hand. Let us extend it in all generosity and magnanim- 
ity. The very idea of organizing the food supply for 
the lands will help to purify and sweeten the atmosphere 
which has been cursed with war, hate and untruth. It 
would all have been so much easier if Germany had put 
up a clean fight, and had not stained her hands in such 
crimes. But even so, we have to be influenced by larger 
considerations. We must try to save what can still be 
saved from the wreck of Europe and prepare the nations 
for the better order for which so much has already been 
spent. In this great crisis we are not merely Englishmen 
or Americans; we feel the call of a common humanity, 
the pull of those simple human feelings which alone can 
heal the deep wounds which have been inflicted on the 
body of civilization. 

"It is interesting to consider what influence this state 
of the continent of Europe will and must have on 
President Wilson's program for a league of nations for 
world peace. Although the idea of a league of nations 
has been universally welcomed, especially in America 
and in this country, and opinion in favor of its practi- 
cability has been making rapid progress, still it must be 
admitted that it has been looked upon more as an ideal 
than a practical measure. Among hard-headed politic- 
— 227 — 



AYokldWak ians and European diplomatists I fear there has been a 

At Its tendency to look npon the idea with a good deal of 

Clim\x 1'^*^^*^'^" '^^^^^ even skepticism as Utopian ami not snited 

r.', to existing conditions of European politics. 

^ '* This has largely l>een due to the fact that the function 
hitherto assigned to the league of nations, namely, that 
of preserving world peace, was looked upon as a vain 
aspiration on the ground that, human nature being 
what it is, the prevention of all wars would be impos- 
sible. It is, of course, admitted that the prevention of 
wars and curbing of extreme national passions is the 
most dithcult function which could be intrusted to the 
league. But it was not recognized that other more 
practicable functions might soon have to l>e discharged 
by it. The situation which has arisen on the ccMitinent 
has suddenly changed all this and it is rapidly being 
recognized that a league of nations has become a neces- 
sary link in the chain of European policy. 
'* In the first place, it will be necessary innnediately to 
create what I have called the organization against 
hunger, and to ration all those countries where condi- 
tions of food shortage threaten disaster. The existing 
inter- Ally machinery, which is the nucleus of the league 
of nations, will probably untlertake this task in the iirst 
instance. ^Moreover, during the period of economic recon- 
struction after the war. when there will l>e a shortage 
of many essential raw materials, the Allies, as well as 
former neutral and enemy countries, will have to be 
rationed. Eor this purpose again the creation of inter- 
national machinery will be necessary. It is thus clear 
that we are making straight for a league of nations 
which will be charged with the performance of these 
essential international functions. Eor these important 
purposes a league of nations is no longer an ideal for 
an aspiration, but a sheer practical necessity. ]5ut there 
o>28 



is more, unci here we come to tlie function originally World Wad 
intended for the league. At Its 

" It is more than pr()ba})le that the future map of Europe Climax 
will look very different from the pre-war map. Most of ^ 
the nations of the continent have hitherto been grouped * 
into great states or powers to whom they have belonged. 
A fundamental change is coming over the situation. 
Russia has already broken uj), and it is most unlikely 
that the western border nations which have broken 
away from her will ever return. Austria, again, has in 
the past held together a vei-itable medley of nations 
and races, and has with some degree of success, although 
not without grave political friction, kept the peace 
among them. Austria is also being dissolved into her 
original elements, and there seems little prospect of 
arresting this ])rocess before she has completely dis- 
appeared &^ s^ 

" What will happen to Germany it is more difficult to 
foretell, though it is possible that the great racial 
homogeneity and the education and political discipline 
of Germany will in the end keep her from disintegration. 
In any case, we shall have to face a new situation in 
P^urope. From Finland in the north to Constantinople 
in the south, the map of Europe will be covered with 
small nations, mostly untrained in habits of self-govern- 
ment, some having suffered political shipwreck on that 
account and divided from each other by profound 
national or racial prejudices and antipathies. In most 
there is a resolute minority of alien race making for 
internal weakness. If we may draw any inference from 
our experience in the Balkans, we may expect a much 
more disturbed state in the future Europe and more 
dangers of wars than we have had in the past. Already 
some of them are threatened with internal disorders. 
^ " It becomes, therefore, imperative to create an inter- 
— 229 — 



World War national organization which will, to some extent, take 
x\t Its tl^^ place of the great powers which have disappeared. 
Climax ^^^^ keep the peace among these smaller states, even if 
to it is not necessary to supervise their internal policies. 
^ The league of nations is no longer an idea in cloudland, 
but will soon be recognized as a necessary organ of 
future European government. And in discharging the 
functions here referred to. it will develop vitality; it 
will take root and grow; it will be seen to be a beneficent 
institution; a great volume of public opinion will 
gradually gather round it, and it will eventually become 
strong enough to essay that supreme task of preserving 
world peace for which it was originally intended. It will 
stand out as the greatest creative effort of the human 
race in the sphere of political government, and will 
then be seen to have justified all the losses and suffer- 
ings of this greatest tragedy in history. 
" In the meantime the league will probably be found 
useful in solving other problems with which the world 
will be confronted. Hitherto, where all states have been 
equals and principals, it has been diflScult to have 
recourse to the very useful idea of international agency. 
But when the league is established, it is very likely that 
it will, in a proper case, depute some particular state 
to act on its behalf. Thus America might be asked to 
act, say, in some offshoot from the Turkish or Russian 
Empire, not in her own right, but as the mandatory 
and on behalf of the league of nations, who will give 
her general directions. Or take again the case of the 
former German colonies. Some of these colonies are 
quite fairly and properly claimed and will have to be 
given to the British dominions which conquered them 
and for whose future development or security they are 
necessary. But it is conceivable that there are colonies 
which are not so claimed. The Allies which have con- 
— 230 — 



quered and now liold them will resist to the utmost World War 
their restoration to Germany, as they can not foresee At Its 
what course the future development of Germany might Climax 
take. In such cases these powers could be deputed to «, 
hold these colonies, not, however, in their own right, ' 
but as mandatories of the league, until the question of 
their ultimate disposal is settled in the future. Some 
other very knotty territorial problems could be settled, 
or, at any rate, deferred in the same way. And it will 
probably be found at the Peace Congress, which will 
eventually deal with these questions, that the league 
of nations will be a necessary and indispensable solvent 
of some of our gravest international problems. 
" The international state of affairs w^liich has resulted 
from this war calls for a great move forward in the 
political organization of the world. The great war was 
probably as much the result of outworn international 
law and organization as of German imperial ambitions. 
The task will be as difficult as it is great. But w^here 
America joins hands with Europe and the British 
Empire in attempting to solve it, I have no doubt that 
a solution will be found. And thus from the fluid results 
of this war we shall create the stable political forms 
which will hold the progress of the race in the coming 
ages &^ &^ 

" This war has shattered to its foundations the old 
immobile world. Things are fluid and plastic once more 
and capable of receiving a new creative impression. 
What impression shall it be.^^ It is for us to labor in the 
remaking of that world to better ends, to plan its 
international reorganization on lines of universal free- 
dom and justice, and to re-establish among the classes 
and the nations that good-will which is the only sure 
foundation for any enduring international system. Let 
us not underrate our opportunity. The age of miracles 
— 231 — "^ 



World War is never past. The greatest experience of my life has 

At Its been to witness how, in my own country, a pohcy of 

Climax conciHation and trust re-created a land broken by war, 

to and healed wounds and wrongs of a very dangerous 

• character. The history of South Africa since the Boer 

War bears immortal testimony to the wisdom of the 

policy of conciliation. If the victors in this greatest of 

wars approach the great problems before them in the 

same large temper in which this country acted on that 

occasion, I have hope that the bitterness of this war 

may yet lead to a great reconciliation of the peoples 

in the future and perhaps even to the disappearance 

of war itself." 



232 



Part VII 

Home Again 



Nothing Would Tempt the Editors 
TO Endure the Fatigues and Hard- 
ships OF Another Such a Trip 



Its Compensations However the 

Greatest of Any in All 

Their Lives 



CHAPTER XLI 



p»l 


1 




i 


PliK^vCM^^y 


S^^is^^SS 



Homeward Bound 

Snhmarines Withdrawn and Ocean Lighted at Night and the Great 
Transformation was Complete. 

ONDON still bubbled with joy and 
seethed with excitement over a con- 
cluded and signed armistice when, late 
Friday afternoon, November Fifteenth, 
we bade her a fond farewell and trek- 
ked our way homeward. Our official 
hosts accompanied us to Liverpool, 
where next day they took leave of us aboard ship. In 
marked contrast with our outbound accommodations 
were those returning. Balmoral Castle, a commodious 
and comfortable first-class steamer, whose regular route 
was between The Transvaal and Congo Free States and 
P^ngland, was chosen for it. It had been our unique, 
melancholy distinction to go over in a convoy, the only 
one to lose a vessel in a storm, and now" we were return- 
ing on the first boat in three years to carrj^ mail and 
passengers s^ &^ 

In midocean we met a large steamer agleam from water's 
edge to topmast. It was a most joj^ous sight, welcomed 
with whistling, loud and long. Our ship's officers said it 
was the first lighted vessel they had seen on the ocean 
in four years. Our own boat was inky black, not a light 
displayed anywhere. Shutters went up and lights were 
capped at four thirty o'clock as usual. The Briton did 
not know, officially, armistice had been signed and con- 
tinued war usages until he returned to Liverpool. 
— 235 — 



AVoRLD War Before quitting London we were positively assured 
At Its upon high governmental authority that so exact and 
P marvellous was Germany's knowledge of the where- 

« abouts of its underseas navy that within twenty-four 
^ hours after the armistice was signed, every submarine 
was fished out of the sea. It was glorious news to us that 
these demons of the deep were to be no longer a menace 
or a peril. One day out, we came upon fleets of trawlers 
sweeping the seas for floating mines. 
Leaving dock at Liverpool we discovered a young man 
who was a mysterious fellow passenger on the way over. 
Armistice being signed his lips were no longer sealed 
and he revealed to us that he had been sent abroad by 
our federal government to make highly important 
experiments to detect the presence of submarines, locate 
them with precision, and practically to transmit radio- 
grams underseas. It was believed the new discovery 
would completely nullify if not entirely stamp out sub- 
marine warfare. Experiments were satisfactory, so far 
as they went, but time and a number of important 
changes, it was said, must follow before a full fruition 
resulted &^ s^ 

Congressman Byrne, of South Carolina, who, with 
Carter Glass, afterward Secretary of the Treasury of 
the United States, had been sent across by President 
Wilson on a secret financial mission, was also a passen- 
ger. Representative Glass had two sons in the service 
and remained in Paris to visit them, and as it turned 
out, to secure for one of them an important appoint- 
ment in connection with the peace conference at Ver- 
sailles &^ &^ 

Another fellow passenger was Acting Captain A. F. B. 
Carpenter of the Vindictive, which he sunk at the peril 
of his life, bottling up the German submarines in the Zee- 
brugge Canal so effectively they nevereven dared attempt 
— 236 — 



to come out. This was one of the outstanding accomp- World War 
lishments of the AUies in the World W' ar and Captain At Its 
Carpenter was its hero. Climax 

A pathetic feature of this remarkable exploit was that ^ 
Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. Brock, inventor of the smoke ' 
screen, without which this marvellous piece of strategy 
could not have been accomplished, was killed in action 
during the self-sinking of the Vindictive. Captain Car- 
penter was coming to America for financial aid for the 
British Seaman's union. 

In a talk to passengers on the Balmoral Castle the 
Captain drew attention to Kaiser Wilhelm's threat that 
he would fill the seas so full of submarines seamen could 
not be found who would dare to sail in merchant ships. 
" Let 's see," he continued " what there is to that 
threat. Today there sleep in the bottom of the ocean 
eighteen thousand members of the British Seaman's 
union — that was Britain's answer to the Kaiser. Never 
has there been a vessel ready to leave an English port 
to bring back food, munitions or what not — that has 
waited one minute for men to man it, notwithstanding 
they fully realized the stupendous risk they were under- 
taking." &^ s^ 

Outstanding above and beyond all else in this wonderful 
journey of ours was the rapid and complete transfor- 
mation in six short weeks. Going over, our convoy of 
camouflaged ships were guarded by a cruiser, a destroyer 
and a giant man-of-war, protected by seaplanes and 
dirigibles, which, of course, hunted submarines, forsook 
familiar lanes of the sea and mysteriously pursued its 
tortuous or zigzag way. All ships were darkened (it 
being an offense under an Act of the Realm punishable 
by death to display a hght, even a match to light a 
cigar,) and they crossed and recrossed each other's path 
at night in hair-breadth fashion, one being kept in con- 
— 237 — 



World War 

At Its 

Climax 



stant terror of a collision. Smoke barrages were laid 
down on the ocean to thwart submarines. WV were 
warned that German bombing planes were extremely 
active in Great Britain and France, that big Berthas 
were shelling Paris; everywhere in England were signs, 
" Save coal, less coal used means more boats to bring 
over American soldiers," darkened hotels, streets, 
buses, taxicabs, street cars and steam cars, theaters 
closed, hearing from the lips of King George, President 
Poincare, Clemenceau, Lloyd George, Pershing, Haig, 
Foch, and men active in conduct of war that it must go 
on from one to three years longer, finding pictured in 
the faces of English and French women, the awful 
sacrifices they had made and were making on the 
morning of November Eleventh, there broke the news 
of signing of the Armistice. And now^ we were in regular 
lanes of the sea headed straight for New York to con- 
sume only one half the time required in going over. 
^ Fighting had ceased and the great transformation was 
complete &^ 5^ 




238 



A Glorious Antithesis 




In Exactly Four Weeks the Scene Changed, that President Poincare 
and Marshal J off re Said Would Require Years to Accomplish 
— Peans of Joy and Eloquent Words of Thanksgiving. 



^-St^^^f^^i 



]\1E and place have been termed the 
essence of all things. The truth of that 
aphorism was _ never more forcibly 
brought home to the writer than in 
attendance at solemn High Mass of 
Jubilee, Thanksgiving day, Nineteen 
Hundred Eighteen, at the Cathedral 
of the Immaculate Conception, Syracuse. 
Home again, caught in the warmth and swirl of wel- 
come that awaits the humblest traveler returned to his 
own, Syracuse seemed good on his arrival on the eve of 
Thanksgiving. Our son was safe. The sacrifice was over. 
The end seemed attained. 

In the cathedral throng, solemnity and radiant joy vied 
for expression on the countenances of praying people. 
Only a month before I had stood in the chancel of a half 
destroyed ancient Catholic cathedral at St. Quentin. 
It had been converted into a hospital by the invader 
and continued in that use by the French after its 
recapture. The silence of the House of God was broken 
by piteous sounds of suffering wounded. In the crypt 
below the rifled coffins of nuns testified to the excesses, 
the depravity, to which embattled mankind may 
descend &^ &^ 

Yet here, a month later, it might have been a century, 

was peace. Below the surface maj'^ have lain hysteria, 

— 239 — 



World War hatred even, anger at any rate, and righteous anger, 
At Its but only thanksgiving welled through. Tears came and 
Climax ^^^^^^ glistened. 

J From the twilight of the nave, the altar appeared 
^ resplendent. Bishop Grimes moved simply through the 
high ceremonies of the mass, assisted by prelates and 
priests. Sunshine that was wintry, but Syracuse sun- 
shine, slanted through the windows far above. Candles 
gleamed against marble. Linen, lace and brocades lent 
their purity and color to the scene. 

At the " Sanctus! " with the sounding of the chimes, 
hailing the act of consecration, lights flooded the altar. 
To the left between the arches floated the Stars and 
Stripes. At the right hung a congregational service flag, 
two hundred sixty-two stars upon its field, seven of 
them gold. Between, uplifted, shone the Host and the 
chalice, bread and wine, the Sacrament of the Eucharist. 
^Except for the sounds of the service, the vaulted 
interior was as silent as that crypt in France. 
The momentary tension was done, the crowd packed 
in from altar rail to vestibule, in aisles and sanctuary, 
relaxed imperceptibly. 

Children's voices took up the mass again. The words of 
the sermon echoed in the mind of one auditor at 
least. The Reverend George S. Mahon, the preacher at 
the mass, had said reflectively that the good pious 
German people had the respect of all only a few years 
before. He had traveled among them and seen them 
going peacefully about their duty. The iron heel had 
clanked among them but few had noted. Then Germany 
went mad. Never might such madness touch America, 
he prayed. Rather should she keep her face forever 
turned from dreams of conquest and dominion, content 
with her empire of justice, peace, tolerance, and funda- 
mental righteousness before God and man! 
— 240 — 



"Amen!" sang the hearts of the people, and as the World War 

echoes rang in spirit the children's chorus tramped At Its 

down from the loft and came marching to the altar Climax 

singing " The Star-Spangled Banner." Professor John ^ 

J. Raleigh may never play again as on that day with 

the inspiration of that time and place in his heart and 

hands s^ s^ 

Congregation and clergy joined in the anthem until it 

became a great shout of joy and re-consecration to 

America under God. 

Such was the contrast of a month, between overseas 

and home, a church in France and a church in Syracuse. 

When we left St. Quentin, President Poincare and 

General Joffre told us the war was yet an affair of years, 

but a little later and in another place, we saw separately 

the fulfilment, the realization of America. 



241 



ClLVrrER XLII 




Mirth and Sorrow 

Humor and Pathos Gaihcrcd on ()tficial Trip — Bok and Wheeler 
Supply Two Pathetic Tales. 

ROM sunshine to shadow, from grave 
to gay, from pathos to eestaey, from 
the subhme to the ridieulous in qniek, 
kaleidoseopie succession, often com- 
pletely blending, outstand as lasting 
impressions of our trip outbound and 

abroad. Many of them arose on ouv 

troop-ship, tlie Oronles, which, from our frightful 
experiences, we called The Ship of Death, ^lost of it, 
however, was negro hiunor, five hundred of the Orontes 
eighteen himdred troops l)eing members of the black 
race. In the a^^'fulness of storm, of deaths and biu'ials, 
many became hysterical and a few temporarily insane. 
The latter were locked up and held in martial restraint. 
^ Standing on the hurricane deck, although any deck 
might properly be called hin*ricane, a burly negro whose 
one-track mind seemed to work only in military tactics 
said, as he looked out upon angry, billowy, swift-rolling 
waters : 

" I vvondah, boss, ef dis yar ocean am ebber gwine to 
cum to attention! " 

Negro to Find Firm Footing Back, 
A " Y " man visiting a moiu'uful negro in the travail 
of seasickness offered words of comfort only to be met 
with this response: " I 'se nebber gwine to cum back 
dis yar way agin, boss. No, siree." 
— 243 — 



World War "Don't be discouraged, Mose; brace up; you're not 
At Its going ^o die," was the Christian officer's consoHng 
Clim\x reply .^.^ 

to " I kno\ys, I knows I is 'nt gwine to die, sir, but I 'se 
' nebber comin' dis yar way no moah, suah." 

At this the nonphissed official inquired whether he 
expected to be killed in battle or if, surviving, he 
meant to remain in Europe, he received this answer: 
^ " Oh! I 'se comin' back all right sir, I is. Yes, sir, 
yes, sir." 

" I can't understand you at all Mose. You say you 're 
not coming back this way, but that you are coming 
back.^ Do you expect to fly? " 

" Lo'd o' mercy no; aeroplane am wurse dan dis yar 
boat. No sir. No aeroplane for me. I '11 tell you how I 'se 
gwine to git back. I nebber see'd a ribber nor a lake w^at 
did 'nt hab sum land round it — wat else keeps de 
watah in.^ an' I 'se gwine to find de Ian round dis yar 
ocean and den I 'se arwine to walk back home." 



It Was a Gratid Fight 
John met Michael, just returned from war, and greeted 
him as follows: 

" Begorrah ! I 'm glad to see you and sorry to see you — 
glad you 're back, but sorry to hear you had a turrible 
time.'' &^ 5#» 

" Indade, I did," said Michael. " I was in th' Argonne, 
St. Mihiel, and hed a divil of a toime. But 't wuz a 
grand foight — a grand foight." 
" What th' divil de ye mane be a g-rand foight? " 
" Well, 't wuz the first foight I wuz ever in that th' 
police did n't interfere." 

Do You Want to Live Forever 

A colored captain of a machine gun squad composed of 

— 244 — 



? 



his own race found one of his men lagging behind and World War 
shouted to him to come on and fight. " Get into de At Its 
game, sir, get into de game." Climax 

But the buck private had evidently heard the oft- 
repeated assertion that the average life of a machine 
gunner in war, as being then waged, was only ten hours, 
and still cringingly held back. The captain, in a rage, 
shouted to him: 

" Come yare, you white niggah; come on here an' fight. 
Does you want to live forever.'^ " 



Would Sell His Watch. 
A big wave struck the ship one day causing it to tremble 
violently. Believing a submarine the cause, whistles 
were blown signalling passengers to go above and 
prepare to enter boats and leave the ship. Life preser- 
vers were adjusted and a long line formed. A burly 
negro with a heavy voice occupying a place well back 
to the end of the line, thinking his time had come and 
that for a short while at most, would he have use for a 
time piece, shouted: 

" Does any gen'man yeah want to buy a good gold 
watch cheap .'^ " 

Preferred Land and a Tree to a Sail Boat. 
Another seasick, ebony hued individual was besought 
by a companion to leave his quarters and come out 
and enjoy the pleasant sight of a sail boat. 
*' Go away, nigger," w^as his cry, " I doan want to see 
no sail; But ef you sees a tree fur de good Lord's sake 
show me to it.'' 

President Wilson no Pacifist. 

Two negroes discussed whether President Wilson, now 

that America had entered war, was still a Pacifist. 

— U5 — 



World War "' No siree, he suali is 'iit," saiii one. "I kiunvs INIr. Wilson 

At Its berry well, berry well, indeed, an he ain't no pacifist. 

Clim\x ^^^' ^^il^^^^^ '^"^ '^ ^'^ly sensible man. He jes' places you 

to up in de front firing line, puts a gun in youah hands 

^ and den lets you use yuali own judgment." 

A Wonderful Gun. 

A negro soldier came out of the tiring line to work in a 
base hospital near Paris. Just before leaving he had 
had some experience when the Germans laid dcnvn a 
low barrage. A servant of his own race in the hospital 
declared he was anxious to get into battle on the front, 
to which the veteran remarked, " Xo, siree! You does n't 
wan' to go up dar. Dem Boshes am got gims dat shoots 
cannon ball wat weighs twenty tons for fifty-six miles 
an' den trows rocks fo' haf a' hour aftawa'd." 



A Negro's Fear. 

The captain of a negro company one morning up at 
the front line addressed his men as follows: 
'* Now, boys, you see those woods over there. Well, 
we are going to shell those woods first with our artil- 
lery and then this company is going to charge over 
there and capture them." 

" Hoi' on. Captain, hoi' on," earnestly spoke one black 
private. '* Does you know dat dere is Boshes in deni 
woods .^ " .?♦► 5^ 



Difference Between an Englishman and an American. 

At a dinner in London given us by the Authors' Club an 
American publisher said the dirt'erence between an Eng- 
lishman and an American was that the Englishman 
walked into the drawing room of a fine old palace, strutted 
about admiringly, just as if he owned it, while the 
— ^4(? — 



American strutted about and admired, but did n't give World War 
a rap who owned it. At Its 

A Higher Power. Climax 

^ *' Do you believe in a higher power? " inquired a ' 
clergyman of a newcomer at a revival meeting." 
" Certainly! I married her." 



Herald niustrator's Message to Queen Mary. 
Queen ]Mary is an expert milliner and designs most of 
her hats. It is related she made a vow when war broke 
that she would n't get a new hat until war was over. 
King George agreed to omit wine from the table as 
his sacrifice. Night before the writer left Syracuse for 
New York to sail away he asked the artist, whose work 
for a dozen or more years has brightened The Herald, if 
there were any suggestions he wished to make: 
" Yes. If you see Queen Mary tell her, for Heaven's 
sake, to get a new hat — I 'm awfully tired of drawing 
the old one." 



King George's Sense of Humor. 
At Savoy Hotel in London, before going to Sandring- 
ham for a day with King George, Queen INIary and 
others of the royal family, there was excited discussion 
as to what the editors should wear and how they should 
act. Ministry of Information said King and Queen 
would be best pleased to have them come in ordinary 
dress as it was war time and consequently form and 
ceremony were waived. A member of the Editorial party 
told King George, as he walked with him through the 
grounds at Sandringham of our discussion in London. 
^ The King laughing heartily, said it reminded him of 
an incident in France whither he went to review the 
Fourth British Army where his son, the Prince of Wales, 
— 247 — 



World War was engaged. He said he was dressed much as he then 
At Its was in a suit of home spun. Finishing his inspection of 
Climax I^^tish troops he was stepping into his motor car to go 
fe away when he noticed two American dough boys at the 
^ side of the car eyeing him intently. This dialogue 
took place betwween them : 
"Who's the boss.^" 
" Why, that 's the King of England." 
" The Hell it is. W'here 's his crown .^ " 



Piper Protested Sharing Honors With the Whole Party. 
When Piper and O'Hara, who narrowly escaped making 
the supreme sacrifice, or, as they saj^ in the army 
" going West," in a limousine smash near Arras, 
France, had mended their wounds so they were able 
to rejoin their companions, the casualties remarked 
one evening that as they were hurt while in the war 
zone, under escort of British soldiers, while in pursuit 
of knowledge for the benefit of Great Britain, that 
government should award them wound stripes or 
medals as a recognition of merit and valor. 
One listener suggested the honor should go to the whole 
party. Piper protested that as but two had gone through 
the ordeal, only they should receive the reward. 
The sector where the accident occurred had been des- 
perately fought over. Barbed wire entanglements, 
trenches, and dug outs were everywhere. The tree into 
which their limousine was catapulted was the only one 
left standing. 

" The Kaiser knew we were coming and he just left 
the tree there for O'Hara and me to smash into," 
said Piper. 

'* Why you two ? " one of the party inquired. 
*' Granted the Kaiser is wicked, cruel, criminal, fiend- 
ish," observed Piper, "he, nevertheless, is a discerning, 
— 248 — 



wise old fox. He knew which two of our party were World Wai 
capable of doing him the most harm and he just natur- At Its 
ally wanted to wipe us off the face of the earth and Climax 
left the tree there for that purpose." 



ONE OF WAR'S TRAGEDIES 

Lord Rothermere, Brother of Viscount Northdiffe, Gave 

Two of Three Sons to War. 
Lord Rothermere, brother of Viscount Northcliffe 
met Edgar B. Piper, of Oregon, member of the Editor- 
ial party in the lobby of the Savoy hotel and invited 
him to join him in a cup of tea in his Lordship's quarters 
at the hotel. Needless to say the invitation was ac- 
cepted &^ s^ 

While Lord Rothermere and his American guest were 
enjoying their brew, a handsome, athletic, upstand- 
ing boy of twenty entered and asked guidance on 
many details concerning the newspaper which his 
Lordship owns. When the boy had left the room, 
Piper, struck by the lad's fine appearance, ventured 
to inquire who he was. 
" He 's my son," came the reply. 

There was a pause and then Piper inquired if he were 
his only son. 

" Yes," Lord Rothermere replied, " he is now. I had 
three. Two were killed in action at the front. He wanted 
to go, too, to avenge his brothers but he 's all I have 
and I persuaded him not to leave me entirely alone." 
^ There was no boasting over the great sacrifice just 
a plain example of English stolidity, asserting a pathetic, 
tragic truth. 

Settling the Irish Question. 
Our host, the British government, asked us to spend 
four days in Ireland to settle the Irish question. As good 
— 249 — 



9 



World War newspaper men, we modestly and cheerfully assumed 
At Its ^^^ great undertaking. Just before we crossed, Viscount 
Climax Northcliffe gave a dinner for us to which he had bidden 
g Balfour, Tennyson, A. Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kip- 
' ling. Earl Grey, the Lord Mayor of London, a son of 
the immortal novelist, Charles Dickens, and half a 
hundred other notables. Next me sat the editor of the 
Mail, the evening edition of the great London Times, 
and which is distinguished as having one of the largest 
daily circulations in the world — 1,550,000. 
" Understand you 're going over the Channel to settle 
the Irish question.'^ " he says. 
" Yes." 5^ s^ 

*' Do you think you can.'* " 

" Well, that 's a fine question for one newspaper man 
to ask another newspaper man, now is 'nt it? You know 
we can— absolutely. W^ould n't go if we did n't know 
positively we could. Of course, they 've been fighting 
more than Seven Hundred years over the question, but 
you would n't expect twelve live, intelligent American 
newspaper publishers to go over there and stay four 
whole days and not settle it, would you? " 
" Yes, you will," he said, slowly and emphatically. 
" I '11 tell you how you '11 settle it. Yesterday I heard 
this analysis of the characteristics of the four peoples 
making up the British Empire: 
" The Englishman loves his beer and his Bible. 
" The Scotchman keeps the Sabbath and everything else 
he can lay his hands on. 

" The Welshman prays on his knees on Sunday — and 
preys on his neighbors the rest of the iveek. 
" But the Irishman, God bless him, he does nt knoio 
what he ivants and ivill not be happy until he gets it. 
" That 's about how you '11 settle the Irish question." 
And it was. 

— 250 — 



A Lot of Hard Work for One Pair of Shoes. 
A negro soldier in the trenches appeared with a new 
pair of shoes. 

" Where did you git dem aer shoes, nigger? " asked 
his chum. 

" I gotten! offen a Boche," was the reply. 
The first negro disappeared and was gone four hours. 
When he returned he, too, had a new pair of shoes. 
^ " What kept you so long.? " asked his friend. 
" I hed to kill twenty of dem aer Boche befo' I got a 
pair to fit me." 

ANOTHER BIT OF PATHOS 
Editor Wheeler's Eloquent Tribute to French Noble Women 
At a composite dinner of newspaper and magazine 
men, given by Viscount Northcliffe, the brilliant editor 
of Everybody's, Dr. E. J. Wheeler, responding for the 
editors, told this pathetic story: 

" I am reminded of a beautiful woman with a smile on 
her lips, more or less wistful, but with an unutterable 
pathos in her eyes. We saw a beautiful countess of 
ancient family in the ruins of her beautiful chateau. 
She told us of the history and the present condition of 
the chateau. There was no attempt to appeal for sym- 
pathy, but it was there, in the wonderful pathos 
of her eyes. We saw a little later a count, the 
descendant of another illustrious family, in his ruined 
chateau. There was a little room, about the size of a 
hall-bedroom of a boarding-house in New York City, 
where he had a cot bed, and that was the only place he 
had to sleep in. There was another little room, down 
below, half-open to the wind, where he had his dining- 
room, and where he insisted on entertaining us at 
afternoon tea. He brought out his little store, one cup 
and eight or nine glasses. We had tea in glasses, not 
— 251 — 



World War 
At Its 
Climax 



World War in cups. He brought out a spoon — one spoon — two 

At Its forks, and one knife. A royal entertainer, with a 

Climax ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ 1^P^» animated in his conversation, and 

g making no appeal to anybody's sympathy. You can not 

' pity the French; I went there expecting to pity them. 

You can only love them and admire them and adore 

them." s^ &^ 

Sii' Anthony Hope's Joke. 
At a banquet to our party in Hotel Savoy, London, 
by celebrated English authors, every one was permitted 
his choice of singing, speaking or telling a story. Every 
one chose the latter. Sir Anthony Hope's response was 
that he never did any one of the three but that vicari- 
ously he would, if permitted, tell one that Richard 
Harding Davis had told on him. Davis said that when 
Sir Anthony first landed in America at New York City 
he was about as green as one could be and live and 
with that observation Sir Anthony, as he looked back, 
agreed. Starting from his hotel he sought, bag in hand, 
to walk to the Grand Central station which, he believed 
was but a few blocks away, instead of several miles. 
Frequently he inquired of pedestrians or policemen 
his way. At length he became impatient and suspicious 
that the truth was not being told him. Finally, he saw 
a well dressed young man with his back against a lamp 
post, who looked intelligent and kindly. He said to 
himself, he would now^ get the truth and approaching 
the young man inquired: 
" My friend, I want to go to Boston." 
This was the answer he got. 
" Well, w^ho in Hell 's stopping you? " 

A GRUESOME FIND 

Onondaga Boy Blown From His Grave By German Shell. 

In Paris, I recalled to my son, our editorial visit to 

— 252 — 



Albert, France, once a beautiful city, with its famous World War 

cathedral, which had been ruthlessly shelled by the At Its 

enemy and completely destroyed. My son thereupon Climax 

disclosed to me the fact that when his One Hundred ^ 

Fourth Machine Gun battalion left Belgium, where * 

it was brigaded with and had fought with the British 

army, to continue fighting with the same army in 

France, his chaplain was sent there in advance to 

prepare such comforts as he might for the coming of 

our boys. 

Among other errands given him was to look up the 

grave of an Onondaga County boy, mortally wounded 

by a sniper while in NO MAN S LAND, heroically giving 

aid to an American soldier who had been frightfully 

hurt. He was buried in a little churchyard in the 

outskirts of Albert. 

The chaplain found the grave with small trouble. 

It was empty. A Boche shell had scooped out the grave, 

and coffin and contents were nowhere to be found. 

^ In the bitterness of that day it was believed all such 

acts as the foregoing were wholly intentional. 

Changed His Calling. 
At St. Dunstan's School London, for soldiers blinded 
in war we were told the following: 

A kind hearted woman stopped in front of a beggar 
whose cap front bore the word, "Blind!" 
" My poor man," she inquired, sympathetically, " were 
you always bhnd.f* " 

*'0h, no, mum," came the prompt reply. "Last week 
I wus lame, but there wuz nuthin' in it." 



Admiral Sims' Pet Bon Mot. 

Admiral Sims in nearly every speech we heard him make 

at functions in our honor loved to tell of going into a 

— 253 — 



World War London haberdashery for a special pattern of shirt. 

At Its Mmutely he described to the salesman what was 

Ttta^tav wanted; about everything in the store was pulled 

i^ dowTi and spread out on a counter for the Admiral's 

▼ approval. Nothing seemed to please him. Finally the 

impatient but persistent salesman sought to press 

upon the Admiral a certain pattern which he declared 

was exactly what he sought. 

" It 's not what I want." 

The remark greatly peeved the salesman who said: 

" Well, that shirt Is good enough for the Sultan of 

Turkey. He 's wearing one." 

" Oh, no, he is n't," Admiral Sims protested. " He 's 

wearing an asbestos shirt." 

The salesman had n't heard that the Sultan to whom 

he alluded was dead. 

A London Police Court Incident. 
Inthe police court in a lonely suburb of the city of London 
a prisoner appeared at the rail and was asked by the 
magistrate what had happened to him. His cheek was 
cut, his eyes blackened and there were other evidences 
of the horrible ordeal through which he had passed. 
^ " I don't rightly remember, Yer 'onor." 
"Don't rightly remember?" echoed the magistrate. 
" It was a case of aphasia, I suppose? "^^ 
" My heyes! yer 'onor. Wat 's aphasia? " 
"Aphasia's confused memory; don't know your own 
name. Try to say something and get the wrong words 
or sentences." 

" Haphasha, that 's hit, yer 'onor. A friend told me 
next time I saw Patrick O'Brien to salute 'im with 
God save Hireland. Some 'ow hor huther I got into my 
bloody head and sang 'croppy lie down' and 'ere's 
what cum huv hit." 

— 254 — 



Heroic Charlie Chaplin. World Wab 

Inquiring at our hotel in Paris of my son who first At Its 
went over the top in Belgium if it were true that men Climax 
go over the top willingly and with a smile, he answered : ^ 
" No, dad. What 's there to smile about? The only 
person I' ve ever heard of going over the top willingly 
and with a smile on his face is Charlie Chaplin in the 
moving picture show." 



Wit of a Presbyterian Clergyman. 
A Presbyterian clergyman and a Catholic priest who 
had gone through the fierce campaign at the battle 
fronts which resulted in smashing the Hindenburg line 
were about to separate and go their different ways. 
War, they agreed, was a great leveller, that they had 
been together in many sad offices and had grown 
exceedingly fond of each other. Coming to the parting 
of the ways the Presbyterian clergyman said to the priest; 
" Well, good bye, dear old partner. W^e 've had many, 
many sorrowful and some happy experiences together. 
After all we both have the same aims and ambitions. 
Both of us wish to serve the Master — You in Your 
Way and I in His.'' 

EDWARD W. BOK'S EXPERIENCE 

In Book of His Life Tells Deeply Pathetic Story of 
World War. 

Edward W. Bok, Editor of the Ladies' Home Journal, 
was a guest at the Northcliffe dinner, hitherto men- 
tioned in this chapter, at which Editor Wheeler of 
Everybody's spoke. Had Mr. Bok been called upon, 
he, too, would perhaps have told stories of pathos gath- 
ered at the battle fronts as he had several most unusual 
experiences. They are not lost to the world, however, 
— ^55 — 



World War as Mr. Bok has preserved them in his book, which he 
At Its writes in the third person.* 
Clim\x ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ most prominent stories is: 

\ One evening as Bok was strolhng out after dinner a 
* Red Cross nurse came to him, exphiining that she had 
two severely wounded boys in what remained of an 
old hut: they were both from Pennsylvania, and had 
expressed a great desire to see him as a resident of 
their State &^ &^ 

** Neither can possibly survive the night," said the 
nurse &i^ &^ 

" They know that? " asked Bok. 

" Oh, yes, but like all our boys they are lying there 
joking with each other." 

Bok was taken into what remained of a room in a 
badly shelled farmhouse, and there, on two roughly 
constructed cots, lay the two boys. Their faces had 
been bandaged so that nothing was visible except the 
eyes of each boy. A candle in a bottle standing on a 
box gave out the only light. But the eyes of both of the 
boys were smiling as Bok came in and sat down on the 
box on which the nurse had been sitting. He talked 
with the boys, got as much of their stories from them 
as he could, and told them such home news as he 
thought might interest them. 

After half an hour he arose to leave, when the nurse 
said: " There is no one here, Mr. Bok, to say the last 
words to these boys. Will you do it.'' " Mr. Bok stood 
transfixed. In sending men over in the service of the 
Y. M. C. A. he had several times told them to be ready 
for any act that they might be asked to render, even 
the most sacred one. And here he stood himself before 
that duty. He felt as if he stood stripped before his 
Maker. Through the glassless window the sky lit up 

* From The Americanization of Edward II'. Bok. Copyright, 1920, by Charles Scribner's Sons. By 
permission of the publisher. 

— 250 — 



constantly with the flashes of the guns, and then fol- World War 
lowed the booming of a shell as it landed. At Its 

" Yes, won't you, sir? " asked the boy on the right cot (^umax 
as he held out his hand. Bok took it, and then the hand ^ 
of the other boy reached out. * 

What to say, he did not know. Then, to his surprise, 
he heard himself repeating extract after extract from 
a book by Lyman Abbott, called " The Other Room," a 
message to the bereaved declaring the non-existence 
of death, but that we merely move from this earth to 
another: from one room to another, as it were. Bok had 
not read the book for years, but here was the subcon- 
scious self supplying the material for him in his moment 
of greatest need. Then he remembered that just before 
leaving home he had heard sung at matins, after the 
prayer for the President, a beautiful song called, 
" Passing Souls." He had asked the rector for a copy of it; 
and, wondering why, he had put it in his wallet that 
he carried with him. He took it out now and holding the 
hand of the boy at his right, he read to them: 

For the passing souls we pray. 
Saviour, meet them on their way ; 
Let their trust lay hold on Thee 
Ere they touch eternity. 

The three other stanzas followed. 

Absolute stillness reigned in the room save for the 
half-suppressed sob from the nurse and the distant 
booming of the cannon. As Bok finished, he heard the 
boy at his right say slowly: "Saviour — meet — me — 
on — my — way:" with a little emphasis on the word 
" my." The hand in his relaxed slowly, and then fell on 
the cot; and he saw that the soul of another brave 
American boy had " gone West." 

Bok glanced at the other boy, reached for his hand, 
— 257 — 



World War shook it, and looking deep into his eyes, he left the 

At Its little hut 5«» s^ 

Climax ^^^^i^ig t^i^ need of air in order to get hold of himself 

to after one of the most solemn moments of his visit to 

^ the front, Bok strolled out, and soon found himself on 

what only a few days before had been a field of carnage 

where the American boys had driven back the Germans. 

Walking in the trenches and looking out, in the clear 

moonlight, over the field of desolation and ruin, and 

thinking of the inferno that had been enacted there 

only so recently, he suddenly felt his foot rest on what 

seemed to be a soft object. Taking his " ever-ready " 

flash from his pocket, he shot a ray at his feet, only to 

realize that his foot was resting on the face of a dead 

German! s^ s^ 

Bok had had enough for one evening! In fact, he had 
had enough of war in all its aspects; and he felt a sigh 
of relief when, a few days thereafter he took The 
Empress of Asia for home, after a ten-weeks' absence. 
He hoped never again to see, at first hand, what war 
meant! &^ &^ 

On the voyage home Edward Bok decided, now that 
war was over, he would ask his company to release him 
from the editorship of The Ladies' Home Journal. 
As Bok was, September 22, 1919, about to leave his 
desk for the last time, it was announced that a young 
soldier whom he " had met and befriended in France " 
was waiting to see him. When the soldier walked into 
the office he was to Bok only one of the many whom 
he had met on the other side. But as the boy shook 
hands with him and said: "I guess you do not remember 
me, Mr. Bok," there was something in the eyes into 
which he looked that startled him. And then, in a flash 
the circumstances under which he had last seen those 
eyes came to him. 

— 258 — 



*' Good heavens, my boy, you are not one of those two World War 
boys in the Httle hut that I — " At Its 

" To whom you read the poem, ' Passing Souls,' that Cumax 
evening. Yes, sir, I 'm the boy who had hold of your ^ 
left hand. My bunkie, Ben, 'went West' that same even- * 
ing, you remember." 

" Yes," replied the editor, *' I remember; I remember 
only too well," and again Bok felt the hand in his 
relax, drop from his own, and heard the words: " Sa- 
viour — meet — me — on — my — way . ' ' 
The boy's voice brought Bok back to the moment. 
^ " It 's wonderful you should remember me; my face 
was all bound up — I guess you could n't see anything 
but my eyes." 

" Just the eyes, that 's right," said Bok. " But they 
burned into me all right, my boy." 
" I don't think I get you, sir," said the boy. 
" No, you would n't," Bok replied. " You could n't, 
boy, not until you 're older. But, tell me, how in the 
world did you ever get out of it.'' " 

" Well, sir," answered the boy, with that shy- 
ness which we all have come to know in the boys 
who actually did, " I guess it was a close call, all right. 
But just as you left us, a hospital corps happened to 
come along on its way to the back and Miss Nelson — 
the nurse, you remember? — she asked them to take 
me along. They took me to a wonderful hospital, gave 
me fine care, and then after a few weeks they sent 
me back to the States, and I 've been in a hospital 
over here ever since. Now, except for the thickness of 
my voice, that you notice, which Doc. says will be all 
right soon, I 'm fit again. The government has given me 
a job, and I came here on leave just to see my parents 
up-State, and I thought I 'd like you to know that 
I did n't ' go West' after all." 

— 259 — 



^^'orldWar Fifteen minutes later Bok left his editorial office for 
At Its the last time. 

Climax -^^^ ^^ ^^ went home his thoughts were not of his last 

^ 'to day at the office, nor of his last acts as editor, but of his 

* last caller — the soldier boy whom he had left seemingly 

so surely on his way " West," and whose eyes had 

burned into his memory on that fearful night a year 

before ! &^ s^ 

Strange that this boy should have been his last visitor! 
^ As John Drinkwater, in his play, makes Abraham 
Lincoln say to General Grant: 
" It 's a queer world!" 



— 260 



CHAPTER XLIII 




Woman in the War 

Reflections and Observations of the Stupendous Work which She Did. 

HE ever fascinating study of woman 
gathered fresh impetus when the world 
war began. In America, before we 
decided to enter European hostihties, 
women had engaged in every conceiv- 
able activity to aid the soldiers in 
training camps, notwithstanding our 
federal government had given its army and navy the 
greatest and most efficient attention and care in the 
world's history of warfare. It was therefore extremely 
interesting to our Editorial party upon reaching foreign 
soil to learn whether Allied women were behind the men 
at the front as we had seen our American women aid, 
encourage and support our soldiers now actually 
engaged in the great conflict. Before leaving home we 
had beheld American women organized societies and 
auxiliaries at home and in club headquarters to knit 
socks and sweaters, make bandages and antiseptic 
dressings. In my own home town, at all hours, 
day or night, they met railway trains with free, 
hot cofl'ee and rolls and appetizing foods and words of 
cheer as well as augmented the nursing staff of 
local hospitals among the frightful " flu " epidemic 
in camp and city. Mothers, wives, sisters and sweet- 
hearts ungrudgingly gave son or husband or brother 
or fiance and sent them away with a smile and a 
blessing. It, therefore, was deeply gratifying to find 
— 261 — 



World War that women on the other side who had carried on 
At Its from 1914, when they consecrated their Uves to the 
Climax Alhed cause, were devoting their talents and energies 
to in the face of many vicissitudes and great discourage- 
* ments to end war at the earHest possible moment. 
Our first real glimpse at woman in war came soon after 
our arrival in England when Mrs. Humphrey Ward, 
distinguished author, publicist, and woman of affairs, 
gave us a complimentary dinner at Hotel Savoy, 
London. Around the festive board sat the wife of the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, dignified, kindly, gracious, 
who put us all quickly at ease: the Duchess of Marlbor- 
ough, formerly Consuelo Vanderbilt of New York, since 
separated from the Duke and rewed, gifted and con- 
cededly among the most beautiful of noble women; 
the Duchess of Athol, who since Lady Astor, native 
Virginian, was elected to Parliament as its first woman 
member, has been asked to become a candidate for 
the office of member of the House of Commons; the 
preceptress of one of the great schools for women in 
England and enough titled and untitled women to 
make a full dozen. 

For four years these prominent women had been engaged 
in all manner of work in hospitals, in training schools 
for nurses and women, and in every big, useful way 
doing their bit to win the war. Just then President 
Wilson had indicated that America might feed starving 
women and children in Germany. Mrs. Ward paid a 
fine tribute to America in a speech that was a classic. 
She told of the great pleasure it was to Englishwomen 
to meet representatives of that kindred nation whose 
aid and comradeship in the vast struggle had been 
of such vital importance. The New World had come to 
readjust the balance of the Old. And after four terrible, 
yet magnificent years, the French were in Alsace, the 
— 262 — 



British at Mons, and the Americans at Sedan. After World War 
beating Germany, after breaking down her miHtary At Its 
class and insisting on reparation, restitution, guaran- Climax 
tees, the AlHes and Americans chiefly, for America alone r^ 
had the power, were at that moment going to feed ^ 
German women and children. She concluded her address 
in thanking God that justice and mercy thus met 
together in consecration of victory. For the great, self- 
sacrificing help of America, which grudged nothing in 
winning the great war, English women were thankful 
from the bottom of their hearts. 

Several other women spoke of work done to educate 
women to do all manner of things in every field of 
endeavor to end war as quickly and as humanely as 
possible but to end it at all hazards. 
At Fruges, France, on our way to Lille came our first 
real encounter with the doleful actualities of w^ar. It 
was a soldier's funeral. Up hill from the center of the 
little town came a meager procession. At the head was 
a French padre bearing aloft a crucifix, followed by 
boys with flow^ers. Then, on a stretcher, came the body 
draped with a French flag. Six women bore the 
stretcher &€^ ^t^ 

Twenty or more women, all in deepest black, completed 
the sorrowful procession. Except for the priest there was 
not a man in the entire company. All were afoot, plod- 
] ding on through rain and mud oblivious apparently of 
I everything except their duty to their dead friend and 
' neighbor. From this procession of sombre clad women 
I we understood that while men fought at the front, 
I w^omen at home w^ere doing their solemn duty, as in 
I honoring and burying the dead. 

As we passed out of the Httle village into the country 

' w^e again saw women at work in fields digging potatoes 

; and beets or driving on roads with loads of vegetables. 

— 263 — 



World War There were a few old men or boys in field or on road but 

At Its for the most part the workers were women. 

Climax Listen to an Alsatian mother, five of whose six sons had 

c, been killed in action. She refused to accept sympathy 

^ with this solemn reply: " They died for France. Do not 

send me letters, I beg of you, with black edges, signs of 

mourning. They have fallen on the field of honor — my 

brave children." 

A French woman, looking a captain, who told her that 
her husband had been killed in battle, squarely and 
steadily in the eye, without the sign of a tear, said, 
" Tell me you '11 save France and I '11 not mourn." 
Yes, we had misjudged France — glorious France — and 
her women. We were before war too prone to judge all 
France by a gay and frivolous few in Paris as we might 
judge all America by the gay set of New York. 
It is related that while on an official tour of France, 
Secretary of War, Baker, in a small village came upon 
a little procession headed by a minister and a priest. 
An American of unknown creed was being buried, hence 
the dual ministration. Following close by the casket a 
woman walked, weeping bitterly. Secretary Baker left 
his automobile and afoot went to the little church grave- 
yard. When burial was complete he spoke consolingly to 
the woman mourner who had so copiously shed tears 
and inquired what relationship she bore to the boy just 
buried. Finding her to be French he repeated his ques- 
tion to the best of his ability in that tongue, and learned 
that she was in no way related. She explained thus: 
" Somewhere in America he perhaps has a mother whose 
heart is bleeding today and I 'm doing for her just what 
she would do were she here." 

A bystander told Secretary Baker that a few days 

before the woman had buried her husband, killed in 

action, a captain in the French army. Thereupon Mr. 

— 264 — 



Baker asked her if her tears were not really shed for World War 
him, to which she indignantly and proudly replied: At Its 
*' No! No! Monsieur! Not one tear for him. Not a tear. Climax 
He died for France. That 's glory enough. Why should ^ 
I cry.f^ Vive La France!" 

In London women did every kind of work. In almost 
complete male attire she was conductor on tram cars, 
buses, washed windows in blocks, swept chimneys, and 
in the outer districts wore a bobby's uniform and did 
police patrol duty as well as the men. We were told they 
were chosen for bravery and strength and that it was no 
exaggeration to say evil-doers feared them more than 
male officers. 

At Arras, France, in a Canadian clearing station, as 
hospitals on the firing line were called, to which a com- 
panion and I were taken after an automobile crash, 
were a number of nurses from New Brunswick and other 
parts of Canada. All were young, nearly all pretty, full 
of life, and sunshine, yet for four fearful years they had 
" carried on," often enduring long and exhausting toil 
and hardships administering to the awful human wreck- 
age of warfare and smiling through it all while they 
spoke words of cheer and hope to their unfortunate 
charges &•» &^ 

At Paris, Mary Elizabeth Evans, of Mary Elizabeth 
candy fame, a well known native of Syracuse, then a 
New York business woman, conducted a great kitchen 
where delicacies were made for American boys in 
hospitals s^ s^ 

All was free. In kitchen, and engaged in the work of 
distribution to the numerous base hospitals, were prom- 
inent women, chiefly from New York City. Even 
chauffeurs of the many cars used one way and another 
in this philanthropic work were women. 
While riding in an automobile in Paris on the way to 
— '265 — 



World War St. Denis hospital, Mary Elizabeth in an outburst of 

At Its joy said to me: " Oh, is n't it wonderful to be alive and 

Climax ^^^^ *^ serve our brave boys at a time like this? No, I 

I would n't go back to New York until it 's over over here, 

' not if they gave me a deed to all Broadway — and I love 

Broadway, too." 

Women, American women, as nurses in hospitals and on 
field as auxiliaries to various organizations rendered 
invaluable service in caring for sick and wounded and 
comforting the dying. Women declared the best was 
none too good for the boy on this or the other side of the 
Atlantic fighting for peace and the betterment of the 
W orld 5^ ^^ 

Thousands of women in America were taking the places 
of men called to the colors and had war gone on, would 
in their loyalty and patriotism, as certainly have suc- 
ceeded men in all lines of work as had her European 
sisters &^ s^ 

And mistreatment of women in Belgium by invading 
German army ofiicers is one of the awful memories of 
war. At Lille, France, which four days before our party 
reached Germany was forced to evacuate, after four 
years of occupancy, women told us of the thralldom of 
those frightful four years. Five thousand young girls 
willingly or unwillingly left Lille with German officers. 
^ In France at the close of war, one million women were 
at work in munition plants alone. 

In Nineteen Hundred Seventeen, France and Great 
Britain said they must have eighty million bushels of 
wheat or they would perish. We sent them one hundred 
eight}' million bushels. Who did it? Women of America. 
Who would have thought a few years before, that Con- 
gress would be permitted to tell us what kind of food 
and how much we were to eat at breakfast? Women 
voluntarily saved wheat, sugar and other things by the 
— 266 — 



cupful until not only Allied armies but our own boys World War 
were fed real wheat bread while we stay-at-homes ate a At Its 
mixture known as war bread. Climax 

In ship, aeroplane and munition plants in England and ^ 
Scotland, tens of thousands of women were employed • 
making shells and fuses, a healthy, happy, smiling lot. 
Upon me it made a most profound impression. To me 
it was unbelievable that these women realized the full 
import of what they were doing. They chatted and 
laughed the livelong daj^ as they worked in the produc- 
tion of missiles made to destroy life, churches, schools, 
business places, towns and cities. And when later on I 
saw the fearful devastation in France, and in London 
the crowded hospitals for the blind, and in England and 
France, hospitals with thousands of men in each, many 
of them horribly torn and disfigured, and saw the burial 
fields near the ruined towns and cities of the Eastern 
war front, I marvelled how women especially, could be 
happy in their work. But, no doubt, the all controlling 
thought possessed them, that it was the only way to 
end a diabolical, brutal war which the Hun was waging 
against the whole civilized world. 

iVnd so in the greatest of all wars, woman, as never 
before, bj^ her prodigious work, her trials and self 
sacrifices, her wonderful optimism and inspiration 
soothed and sustained America and other allies and 
infused into allied armies a spirit and a morale that was 
simply inconquerable. 

The spirit shown by a widowed mother is typical of the 
country she represents. Having crossed France, the 
widow was found prostrate on the battlefield of Verdun, 
by the military police. " Woman, what are you doing 
here? " Looking up through her tears, she replied : " Sirs, 
I have lost five of my sons in this war and have come 
here to weep over the grave of the sixth, my last." 
— 267 — 



World War Hearing this, the soldiers stood before the bereaved 

At Its mother and gave the military salute; seeing this, she 

Climax sprang to her feet and cried: ''Vive la France, quand 

i mhneV (Long live France, all the same!) 




i68 



CHAPTER XLIV 




Wickedest War of All the Ages 

Some Outstanding Impressions and Thoughts Upon its Origin, its 
Wreckage, Wastage and Awjidness — Kaiser Wilhelm When He 
Found He Had Lost, Said War Was Not of His Making But 
War Board Was Wholly to Blame. 

^^gHILE Germany believed she was win- 
ning the war. General Hindenburg, 
Admiral Von Tirpitz, the War Board 
and the Kaiser disputed with each 
other, the credit and the glory of it all. 
When Germany met with reverses and 
collapse was inevitable, sponsorship for 
defeat became an anonymous thing. War, ingloriously 
lost, the Kaiser blamed his war board, declaring he had 
been grossly deceived by it, while the war board, with 
the Kaiser an exile in Holland, heaped the blame upon 
his unprotected head. Every one said the war board was 
right, that it was the Kaiser's mad ambition to stamp 
German Kultur upon a civilized world and by conquer- 
ing it prove himself a greater military genius than 
Alexander, Hamilton, Caesar, Marlborough, Frederick 
the Great, Napoleon or Wellington. 
And the dream of a German Empire, embracing the 
entire civilized and semi-civilized world, ended when 
the Armistice in November, Nineteen Hundred Eigh- 
teen, brought about the debacle. 

It seems hardly credible that following so closely upon 

the heels of the peace conference at The Hague in which 

there was great rejoicing in the belief that war could 

— 269 — 



1 



World War never again be declared between nations, accounted 
At Its highly civilized, there broke a conflict, cruel, diabolical. 
Climax fiendish, beyond human conception. At once every 
scientific mind seemed perverted and bent upon a 
determination to invent some horrible enginery or 
agency to maim and kill. Air planes dropped bombs on 
cities, on people and upon soldiers; machine guns, on 
land, tanks and hand grenades and Big Berthas and 
every specie of poison gas and walls of fire; on sea, 
floating or submerged mines, submarines, (which dir- 
igible balloons, TNT. explosives sought to frustrate 
and barrages of smoke or camouflaging tried to coun- 
teract) were a few of the demoniacal forms of destruc- 
tion employed with deadly efficiency. 
Frightfulness in the minds of German war lords, was 
therefore the only way to victory. London and Edin- 
burgh were bombed from aeroplanes. In Edinburgh, aim 
was directed at the historic citadel. Missed by about a 
block, houses at the foot of the great hill were hit and 
blowTi to pieces. Early in Nineteen Hundred Eighteen, 
London was terrorized by air raids. Bombs were dropped 
in the heart of the city, aimed at government buildings. 
There was much destruction of property and consider- 
able loss of lives, more than the public was permitted 
to know at the time. Tens of thousands of people fled 
from town. Many took to the seashore where a tented 
city of great proportions arose. 

On Good Friday, in Paris, a shell from a Big Bertha hit 
the church de la Madeleine filled with worshippers pray- 
ing for war to end. We were told the Germans had 
promised a truce for that holy day in order that it might 
be peacefully and properly observed. Instead, the fine 
old edifice was completely wTccked, fifty people were 
killed and many more wounded. 

At about the same time in London was another tragic 
— 270 — 



f 



occurrence. It will be remembered that Mrs. Lena World War 
Guilbert Ford, of New York, wrote that popular song, At Its 
" Keep the Home Fires Burning," which proved at once Cli^^x 
an inspiration and a solace to the American heart in 
the dark days of the war. During an air raid in London 
the enemy dropped a bomb upon the house in which 
Mrs. Ford sought to nurse back to health a son ter- 
ribly hurt in battle, and both mother and son were found 
dead in the ruins. 

London and Paris were darkened to prevent night raids. 
Shutters went up at four thirty P. M., streets were 
unlighted and it was an offense under an act of Defence of 
the Realm to display a light of any kind. Even taxi cabs 
were dark &9^ &^ 

Nothing was too appalling if only it seemed to ensure 
victory. A high English official, an American who early 
volunteered to go out with the Canadians and rose to 
first rank in aeronautics, told a member of our party, 
in October, there was a point in Austria, eighty miles 
from Berlin from which Allies planned to liberate a 
flock of fifty Handley-Page machines, each carrying five 
tons of high explosives and capable of staying in the air 
for five hours and whose speed was one hundred miles 
an hour. As soon as the machines, then being built, were 
completed, the expedition would start, fly over and 
drop their deadly missiles upon Berlin, utterly destroy- 
ing it. Before the planes were completed, however, war 
ended s^ s^ 

In the course of our visit to Sandringham we asked King 
George what he thought of Kaiser Wilhelm, his uncle. 
Without a moment's hesitation. His Majesty slowly and 
with great emphasis said: 

"/ THINK HE'S THE GREATEST CRIMINAL 
IN HISTORVr 

Asked further whether he believed the Kaiser might 
— 271 — 



World War commit suicide as was then reported, if he lost his fight, 
At Its King George rephed: "No, whatever else he may be, 
Climax ^^il^i^l^^i is ^^ coward and only cowards commit sui- 

s, cide." &^ &^ 

^ And the following extract of a letter from the Kaiser to 
the Austrian Emperor, which evidently was taken from 
the Austrian archives, confirms King George's terrific 
arraignment of his uncle, and best shows Kaiser Wil- 
helm's intention: 

" Mv soul is torn asunder, but everything must be put 
to fiVe and blood. THE THROATS OF MEN, AND 
WOMEN, CHILDREN AND AGED, MUST BE 
CUT AND NOT A TREE NOR A HOUSE LEFT 
STANDING. With such methods of terror, which alone 
can strike so degenerate a people as the French, the war 
will finish before two months, while if I use human- 
itarian methods it may be prolonged for years. Despite 
all my repugnance I have had to choose the first 
system." 5<^ 5^ 

We saw no women, children nor old person with their 
throats cut either in Belgium or in France; but as to the 
second clause of the Kaiser's threat that not a tree nor 
a house be left standing, we were eye-witnesses to the 
awful completeness with which it had been carried out. 
So far as we could learn, practically all acts of atrocity 
were committed in the first years of the war in Belgium. 
These we got from speech of the people. In Lille, France, 
which the Boche left after four years of occupancy, 
three days before our arrival we were told of a twelve 
year old school boy who had shouted " Vive la France." 
He was seized, attached in the form of a cross to a high 
fence, brush placed under him, burned to death and the 
body left there for more than a week, a terrorizing warn- 
ing to passers by. That was in Nineteen Hundred Four- 
teen. It goes without saying that no other child in 
— 272 — 



Lille dared afterward to shout long live France. World War 
Acts of desecration and vandalism were everywhere in At Its 
evidence. The French peasantry is devoutly Catholic. Climax 
Stately poplar trees had bordered the beautiful roads ?, 
of Eastern France. Every few miles a costly shrine had ' 
appeared, where for many a century the dutiful 
wayfarer had paused to kneel in prayer. Practically 
none of these was left. Many of them were apparently 
blown up w^ith dynamite or knocked down with shells. 
^ Between Noyon and Radinghem in a small town, the 
name of which is gone from memory, the Boche delib- 
erately, it is charged, dropped bombs from an airplane 
on a Red Cross hospital. Three or four doctors, as many 
nurses and a like number of soldiers on the operating 
table were killed outright. No doubt w^hatever remains 
that it was an act of deliberateness, as the hospital roof 
had a big red cross easily seen from the air and the 
offending plane flew^ very low when the bomb was 
dropped ^>«» &^ 

At St. Quentin, holes were drilled in the interior 
columns of the beautiful cathedral, built in the Eleventh 
and Twelfth Centuries. An order in German directed 
in detail the kind of high explosives that were to be used 
to destroy the superb temple. Before orders could be 
carried out the Germans were driven from the city. As 
they went they shelled it until it was almost as 
thoroughly ruined as if the explosives had been let off. 
^ In a cemetery in a little town near Perrone the identi- 
fying numbers on crosses over the graves of two thousand 
Allied dead were deliberately painted out. Cemeteries 
were dynamited and graves torn open and their con- 
tents exposed. 

At St. Quentin, in a crypt beneath a chapel where nuns 

were buried, catacombs were opened, and coffins 

broken in a search for copper with which to make shells. 

— 273 — 



World War Bones in caskets were ruthlessly exposed and left upon 

At Its the stone floor. No one would blame the Hun, as copper 

Climax ^^^ ^ ^^^" iiecessity, had he, finding these poor devout 

^ women were cheaply buried in tin-lined boxes, returned 

* the coffins to their resting places and sealed them up 

again. The world would never have known they had 

been disturbed. 

In concluding, reference to destruction in Belgium and 
France an extract is made from correspondence in the 
Syracuse Herald while the writer was abroad: " Mil- 
lions of men have given their lives to end it and have 
died that others might live. But the battle of life has 
not ended. There lies in the wake of this cruel war, a 
picture such as one who has not seen, can never realize. 
If I were the most vivid or graphic word painter in all 
the world I would not attempt to put that picture into 
the minds of my readers as its gloomy outlines are for- 
ever indelibly stamped upon mine. Would to God I had 
never seen it. With my feeble powers of description, 
however, a few words may perhaps not be amiss. I 've 
looked upon that' long stretch of misery, ruined France, 
from Laon, a city set on the hills, to Vimy Ridge, which 
Germany was forced to abandon ten days before. Vimy 
Ridge where France alone suffered two hundred fifteen 
thousand CASUALTIES AND THEN DID NOT 
WIN. Do you realize that in our own civil war, not 
many more men were engaged on either side than 
France alone lost in battle at Vimy Ridge? 
Eastern France on the long, long trail over which we 
travelled, had been a land of beauty. Birds sang in the 
trees, the earth was green with orchard and field and 
yellow with golden crops. Tall poplar trees shaded 
the splendid roads. 

Flowers were everywhere, especially the lily of France. 

How great and awful, then, has been the transformation: 

— 274 — 



Today in the wake of the Hun are three hundred fifty World War 
thousand DESTROYED BUILDINGS. More than At Its 
$25,000,000,000 will be required to restore them. Homes, Cnjyi^x 
churches, even graveyards, are destroyed and destruc- g 
tion of city and village is complete. Not one village, not * 
one city, but all villages and all cities. Piles of red dust 
and wreckage are all that is left of communities. Now 
and then the weird shaft of a ruined building points its 
finger toward heaven. At night neither cawing crow 
nor shrieking, hungry, circling vulture is seen. It is all 
too poor for even these rapacious birds of prey. Gone 
are the once happy men and women from this black, torn, 
completely devastated area. Where? One million four 
hundred thousand French are dead, while in French and 
Belgian soils one million British soldiers also sleep. 
Once fertile lands are full of shell holes and thick with 
unexploded shells. For one thousand miles by automo- 
bile we rode through this black, torn, leafless territory. 
Trenches, barbed wire entanglements, dugouts (in which 
men took refuge from an inferno of gas and shrapnel 
and bomb and shell), stumps of trees, that had once been 
orchards, cemeteries destroyed by mines planted there 
until vaults and tombs gaped wide open are some of the 
startingly vivid horrors that will live with me so long 
as my memory lasts. Allied dead are in rude cemeteries 
everywhere &^ &^ 

" Surely, the Hun has supplanted the Lily of France with 
the Little White Cross which marks the grave of Allied dead.'* 
Although not closely pertinent to the tenure of this 
chapter it may be interesting to recall that the writer 
was staying in Atlantic City when President Harding 
was inaugurated. It was his intention to catch a special 
train from there at three-thirty A. M. Soft living at a 
luxurious seaside hotel, however, is not conducive to 
rising at such a zero hour and when he awoke the 
— 275 — 



World War special was well on its way to the national capital. Wlien 
At Its ^^ read accounts of inaugural ceremonies on that day, 
Climax hissing the train had its decided compensations which 
^ consisted of one feature that pulled hard at his heart 
' strings. Pathos, especially deep and sad, was written 
in every line newspapers told of how an attendant 
accompanying President Wilson when he moved up or 
down stairs planted his affected leg carefully and firmly 
upon each step before he was permitted to proceed. 
^ Little more than two years before while we were 
there, Woodrow Wilson in Europe was acclaimed, 
always excepting Abraham Lincoln, the greatest Amer- 
ican since Washington, and visiting newspaper pub- 
lishers were urged to insist that he go to Versailles and 
settle the peace of the world. Wilson, to this writer's 
manner of thinking, is as certainly a truly of the 
World War as any shell-shocked, gassed, or shrapnel- 
torn hero of our American soldiery. 



— 276 — 




Some Famous People I Have Met 

Being Impressions of a Number of the World's Eminent, With Like- 
nesses I Discovered in Them to Syracuse Acquaintances. 

O us democratic Americans England's 
royal family made an interesting study. 
I think it was Huck Finn or his negro, 
Jim, who remarked: " Kings and such 
aint so much." But then they had 
never seen a real king. George, the 

Fifth, of England, is a real king and a 

very likable human being withal. I should have been 
glad to meet him even if he were not monarch of 
Britain. His democratic manner and human side pleased 
me. He is a larger and handsomer man than his pictures 
show him to be. He is clean cut, well set up and vigorous. 
In appearance he strongly resembles the late Horace 
K. White so» 5«^ 

Moreover King George is a far abler man than Ameri- 
cans who have not met him might think. Were he not 
occupant of a throne I think he might be a great 
financier or captain of industry. He is alert and keen, 
with wide knowledge and extraordinary grasp of world 
affairs. He has a well developed sense of humor, too. 
You should see his eyes twinkle as he quickly sees the 
funny side of things, and when he laughs he lets himself 
go in a manner that is infectious. 

In his early life he was a lover of nature and spent much 
time out of doors. Some of our party, who thought 
themselves experts in hunting and fishing, were sur- 
prised by his knowledge of wild game, of guns, and 
fishing tackle and of sports generally; and they had to 
admit, after talking with their royal host, that in these 
— 277 — 



i 



World War things they were the veriest tyros. In his discussions of 
At Its nature study and wild life he reminded us of our lamented 
Clim \x Roosevelt. He told us that , as a prince, he had often visited 
Canada and spent many happy days there hunting and 
fishing. It had been his ambition to visit and see America 
thoroughly, but he said the future must determine wheth- 
er or not this ambition should ever be realized. 
Queen Mary is not, as we would say here, so easy to 
become acquainted with. An air of aloofness gives the 
impression that the Queen is ever aware of her royal 
position. This is not to say she is not gracious. She is 
indeed most gracious, kindly and sympathetic. 
Throughout the war she toiled early and late in hos- 
pitals and in other war work. Self denial and retrench- 
ment were practised by all members of the royal 
family and Queen Mary led in this spirit. 
The Queen reminded me of the late Mrs. Evans, 
daughter of Judge Reigel, many years prominent as 
County Judge of Onondaga, and mother of Mary 
Elizabeth Evans of candy fame. 

Dowager Queen Alexandra, relict of King Edward and 
mother of George the Fifth, speaks in a soft and low 
voice and is graciousness personified. Although an 
octogenarian she appears not more than sixt^^ She is 
extremely generous and always has been. One of our 
escorts remarked of her that if she were again on the 
throne she would give it away if the idea occurred to her. 
^ Because of her recent marriage so much has been said 
of Princess INIary, daughter of the King, that all I can 
add is that we found her a sweet, wholesome, happy girl. 
^ Princess Louise is a brunette; intellectual and pleasing 
and keenly alive to all matters of the day. 
To us Viscount Northcliffe probably was the most 
interesting personage we met. Perhaps this was due in 
part to the fact that he was one of us and we were 
— 278 — 



particularly interested in his career and his work as a World War 
publisher &^ &^ At Its 

His personality forced itself upon us. We felt the Climax 
strength of it. In many respects he reminded us of Theo- ^ 
dore Roosevelt. All the Colonel's fire and intensiveness ^ 
without his brusqueness we felt again in Northcliffe. 
Not excepting Roosevelt himself, have I heard one man 
talk on so many subjects and with such a complete 
knowledge of each in an hour's informal chat. The mind 
of this publisher of the greatest number of newspapers 
and magazines controlled by any one man, with one 
possible exception, was a strange complex of ideas. His 
was one of the most remarkable creative intellects of 
the times. He brought forth all manner of publications 
with departments and ramifications never before 
dreamed of in staid English newspaperdom. 
That he was one of the most powerful men in Europe 
can not be gainsaid. It was Northcliffe who brought out 
Lloyd George. Northclift'e's severest critics admitted he 
was a man of giant intellect and of patriotic and lofty 
ideals, but they felt that the government should never 
permit any one man to have a power so great as his, as 
his successors might wield it to the detriment of a nation. 
^ The story of Northcliffe's generosity in the war will 
live forever. To the thousands of his employees who 
went to war he paid salaries, full pay to the married 
and half pay to the unmarried men. In the four years of 
conflict, years of depression in business as well as in 
other things, Northcliffe continued these payments to 
his men, payments which in four years aggregated an 
enormous sum. This was onlj^ one of his many great 
benefactions. What these payments meant to thousands 
of families can not be computed. 

Northcliffe had one overweening conceit, a conceit not 

to his discredit, one of those conceits that many have 

— 279 — 



World War with less reason therefor. It was a natural conceit, too. 
At Its Although he was much taller, he resembled Napoleon 
Climax ^^^ ^^^ proud of it. There was the same strong face 
d and the lock of hair that straggled down on his fore- 
* head. This Napoleonic lock he cultivated and encour- 
aged. A little human vanity in a man, perhaps, but a 
very natural one. 

Northcliffe was a mighty force in the World War, a 
greater force than has been realized, and when the 
history of the Allied military and civic forces is written 
at last I doubt not that Northcliffe will have a bright 
page therein s^ ^^ 

Sir Campbell Stuart, Lord Northcliffe's confidential 
adviser and head of the Daily Mail and London Times, 
and other Northcliffe publications, is a young man of 
great energy and ability. Northcliffe had Sir Campbell 
with him at Versailles and they had much to do with 
drafting the Armistice which, ten days later, Germany 
signed. He wrote a book on propaganda in enemy 
countries entitled " Secrets of Crewe House." Crewe 
House was one of Lord Northcliffe's homes. 
Northcliffe had much to do with propaganda and a 
special price was set on his head by Germany in retalia- 
tion for his work against them. Since Viscount North- 
clift'e's death, Sir Campbell has severed his connection 
with the Daily Mail and other publications to devote 
himself exclusively to The Times, of which he has been 
managing director. In a recent letter to this writer he 
said he had reached England only five days before Lord 
Northclift'e's death, that he had been staying in a camp 
in the Adirondacks but did n't know Syracuse was so 
near. One of his ancestors preached the Gospel to the 
Mohawk Indians along the Mohawk and when he got 
a little leisure he proposed to come back to this part of 
the world and see many of the places with which he is 
— 280 — 



familiar by name, hoping in due course, to include World War 
Syracuse in his itinerary. At Its 

Sir Campbell is a virile, progressive newspaper man Climax 
whom you can scarce make yourself believe is not an ^ 
American. He 's a man of action, brains and force. It ^ 
goes without saying he must be,orNorthcliffe would n't 
have exalted him to his present position. Withal he 's 
a most charming companion, genial and versatile, wise 
in the ways of the world of European politics as well as 
being versed in all manner of human endeavor and affairs. 
In appearance and in speech Mr. Arthur Balfour recalled 
to me Dr. John B. Howe, chief editorial writer of The 
Herald. Slow to get under way in speaking, first impres- 
sions of him are that his efforts will be uninteresting. 
Balfour thinks admirably on his feet. He speaks 
extemporaneously, quickly warming to a vigorous, con- 
vincing style of oratory. Lucid and forceful he never 
lacks for words in which to clothe a thought. We met 
him on many occasions and came to regard him highly. 
Socially he is a prince among men. 
Night after Armistice at Claridge Hotel, London, Lord 
Burnham gave a second notable dinner to our party. 
To me, it brought keen recollections of home. The 
Rt. Hon. Winston Spencer Churchill, then Secretary 
for War, was one of the many prominent speakers. A 
man of commanding presence and real eloquence, he 
was decidedly insistent that England would never 
consent to give up her Great Fleet. It was known at the 
time that that would be President Wilson's demand 
and a bold and unequivocal assertion from such an 
eminent authority was a decided shock to the nervous 
systems of us Americans. It seemed passing strange 
since I recalled Mr. Churchill, who had a military 
record before the World War began, on his maternal 
side is of American descent. Jennie Jerome, Lady 
— 281 — 



World \^AR Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston Spencer, was 

At Its daughter of Leonard Jerome, a prominent New York 

Climax banker who was a son of Timothy Jerome, of Pompey 

to Hill, near Syracuse. It seemed to my mind as if Mr. 

' Churchill took an attitude dictatorial and strongly 
anti-American. Mr. Churchill's father. Lord Randolph 
Churchill, was descended from the Seventh Duke of 
Marlborough. At a banquet, a few days before, given 
by Mrs. Humphrey Ward, the Duchess of ^Marlborough, 
who was formerly Miss Consuelo Vanderbilt of New 
York City, was one of the guests. By marriage she was 
closely related to the Churchills. 

Winston Spencer Churchill, nevertheless, has had a 
most remarkable career. He was Secretary of State for 
the Colonies, Home Secretary, First Lord of Admiralty, 
Rector of Aberdeen University, Chancellor of the Duchy 
of Lancaster, Minister of Munitions, Secretary for War, 
and is now Secretary of State for the Colonies. His war 
record is that he was with the Spanish forces in Cuba in 
Eighteen Hundred Xinety-five, when only twenty-one 
years old, headed the Punjab Infantry in India in 
Eighteen Hundred Ninety-seven, distinguished him- 
self at the Battle of Khartoum, later headed the Light 
Horse Cavalry in South Africa, where he was taken 
prisoner and cleverly escaped. While in the South African 
campaign he was famous as a newspaper correspondent. 
He is an author of no mean merit, having ^^Titten five 
or six books, mostly about wars he has seen and served 
in, and the life of his distinguished parent. Lord Ran- 
dolph Churchill. 

Although nuich younger. Lord Beaverbrook, has 
something about him recalling Governor Nathan L. 
Miller. Only at his wonderful country seat Cherkeley 
Court at Surrey, outside London, had we an opportun- 
ity to meet him, as he was in ill health owing to hard- 
— 282 — 



ships and exposures encountered in World War World War 
engagements. Beaverbrook is big brained and his rise At Its 
was ahnost phenomenal. He had been a resident of Cldjl^x 
England only eight years, urged to go there from his ^ 
native New Brunswick by his friend Bonar Law. who ' 
went out from the same town. Born William Maxwell 
Aitken. he was law\-er and banker at an early age. 
Shrewd, with keen business sense and excellent judg- 
ment he quickly became many times a millionaire. 
Major Evelyn Wrench, spoken of elsewhere, beside a 
war record to be en\"ied. was a big figure in ci\"il life. 
He has recently \*isited America in the interest of the 
EngHsh-Speaking Union which he founded. At the same 
time he carried a ven*- important testimonial from the 
British Government to our State Department in recog- 
nition of the ser\*ices of some of our American troops in 
the war. MajorWrench is still a ver^* young man and will 
no doubt be heard from in English governmental affairs. 
*' Major Yury Ferguson Montague who had charge of us 
on battle fronts is a Canadian whose home is at Win- 
nipeg. He distinguished himself on many a field of 
battle and was frequently decorated. A barrister he 
returned in Xineteen Hundred Nineteen, to Winnipeg, 
and resumed the practice of law. 

It was my pleasant good fortune to be placed next the 
wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury- at Mrs. Hum- 
phrey Ward's dinner. I fell in love with her before she 
uttered a word. She has the sweetest, most motherly 
smile it has been my lot to have bestowed upon me. 
She is of large stature, a lionine head crowned with 
a wealth of titian hair. Perhaps somewhere near sixty. 
highly intellectual, she radiates joy. sunshine and hope 
which seem with her to be a rehgion. World war fur- 
nished a sombre but fruitful field for her great qualities 
of head and heart, all of which she gave without stint. 
— ^S;3 — 



World War Rt. Hon. Viscount Burnham, a newspaper man of high 
At Its rank gave a number of dinners in honor of the American 
Climax editors, is a handsome man who recalls Judge Edgar 
to S. K. Merrill of the Appellate division of the Court of 
' Appeals. He owns the Daily Telegraph, of London, a 
very prosperous newspaper. The Telegraph has experi- 
mented with substitutes for pulp wood in the manu- 
facture of newsprint. For several years The Telegraph 
was printed on paper made from jute straw grown in 
India. Again one hundred thousand acres of wild lands 
in Southwestern Arizona and Southeastern California 
was bought of the United States and Yucca palm trees 
were cut off and made up into newspaper pulp. The 
Yucca has a splendid fibre but only a small supply of 
the wood is obtainable, standing so sparsely as to make 
its gathering unprofitable. 

In a letter back home to The Herald, President Poin- 
caire was likened to the Music blaster. Like General 
Joffre, hero of the Marne, we saw but little of him. 
Each impressed us deeply. Joffre was somewhat ill, 
showing strain when he received us. In April of this 
year when I saw him in New York City he seemed in 
much better health, spirits and vigor. 







SIR CAMPBELL STUART 




LORD BURNHAM 



— 284 — 



FINAL CHAPTER 




Memories 

Thoughts that Please and Bless. 

[ICH memories flood my brain as this 
narrative of a memorable and notable 
jom-ney approaches its end. 
Were not the reader to remember that 
opportunity is born, not made, and 
therefore beyond human creation or 

control. I might be accused of egotism 

in pronouncing this narrative easily the crowning glory 
of a life into which kind fortune has thrust many unusual 
opportunities &^ &^ 

For months, newspapers and magazines have teemed 
with picture and story of a King's daughter who chose 
to wed a viscount and who, as Princess Mary, had first 
to solemnly and ceremoniously renounce her right of 
succession to the throne of England as the price of 
marrying outside of royalty. An old adage runs; "All 
the world loves a lover.'' From all accounts this most 
popular English marriage in many decades was un- 
doubtedly a love match. Therefore Viscountess Las- 
celles should live happily henceforth and forever in the 
love nest, a fine old baronial castle, to which her liege 
lord has taken her. Be that as it may, her splendid 
courage and nobility of decision in preferring the castle 
of a viscount to the marble halls of royalty was at least 
a seeming sacrifice which commands universal admira- 
tion. Princess Mary, nineteen, was a central figure in 
entertaining our editorial party on the occasion of a 
memorable visit to Sandringham, the country home of 
— 285 — 



World War King George. King George and hostesses were Queen 
At Its Mary, Dowager Queen Alexandra, mother of the King 
Ptta/tav and widow of King Edward VII and Princess Louise, 
fe sister or the King. 

' Present day pictures of Viscountess Lascelles show her 
grown decidedly mature or matronly in three and a half 
years that have elapsed since that eventful day at 
Sandringham when she was just a vivacious, laughing, 
merry, English girl, whose alert human interest and 
sympathy and unassuming, democratic ways won all 
our hearts. No doubt every member of our party today 
is wishing her every joy and comfort this world can 

bestow 54^ 54^ 

Recalled to my mind also are the names of two American 
women who acted as bridesmaids to Princess Mary — 
the former Duchess of Marlborough,who before marriage 
was Miss Consuelo Vanderbilt of New York City, and 
Lady Decies, formerly Miss Vivian Gould, also of New 
York and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George J. 
Gould &^ &^ 

^ The then Duchess of Marlborough was the cynosure of 
all eyes at a banquet given in our honor in London by 
Mrs. Humphrey Ward, distinguished English author, 
while Lady Decies' husband. Lord Decies, a fine, red- 
blooded, two-fisted fellow gave us a remarkable dinner 
at Shelburne Hotel, Dublin. My table-mate at the 
function was Sir Horace Plunkett, one of the principal 
speakers, who has twice since come to America for rest, 
recreation and to lecture. During the afternoon pre- 
ceding the dinner, we had had a five hours' session 
with eight leading Sinn Feiners in Assembly hall, Shel- 
burne Hotel. A year or so ago it was announced that 
Lord Decies — who had been offered the Lieutenant- 
General's office in Ireland had resolved to expatriate 
himself from Great Britain and becoming a citizen of 



the United States, reside in New York. The proposition, World War 
however has not materiahzed. At Its 

Arthur J. Balfour, another of England's truly great, Climax 
has returned to London after a long and active stay at ^ 
Washington, where he was a commanding figure in the ^ 
disarmament conference, and has just been made 
Knight of the Garter in acknowledgment of his ser- 
vices. At the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, he was 
given a dinner by the American branch of the English- 
Speaking Union, of which Ex-President William H. 
Taft is President. Our entire party was bidden to it. 
We had been given a wonderful banquet in London by 
the parent organization, of which Mr. Balfour is presi- 
dent. The LTnion was founded by Major Evelyn Wrench, 
acting host of our editorial expedition, which, in a body, 
became members. 

It was likewise my very great privilege to meet Marshal 
Foch at a dinner in New York, given at the Commodore 
Hotel by New York State, under the auspices of Gover- 
nor Nathan L. Miller. Marshal Foch had sought to 
arrange a meeting with us in France but was too busily 
engaged in smashing the Hindenburg line, which he 
broke so effectively an armistice was forced a little later. 
^ General Haig, commander of British troops, also 
vainly tried to meet us. He had given up Radinghem 
castle for our convenience and comfort, leaving in 
charge of it several of his aides and many servants. 
But he, too, was actively engaging the enemy and made 
his headquarters in another castle at the front, whence 
he was pushing back the German army. 
Last, but not least. General John J. Pershing was our 
host at a function in Paris. Happily, one week later the 
Armistice was signed and hostilities ceased. 
Having thus recalled the persons whose names re- 
awaken world war memories it is perhaps apropos that 
— 287 — 



World War this narrative should close with a consideration of why 

At Its Germany lost and the Allies won, with especial emphasis 

Climax ^^ America's part. Insofar as America's part goes, it is 

g my unshakable opinion it won through the American 

^ boy's sublime faith, love of home and mother. 

AND THE GREATEST OF ALL THESE WAS 
MOTHER. 

^ President Poincare, at an official reception in Paris, 
characterized the German army as the most wicked, 
the most cruel, but the most efficient and powerful 
fighting machine in all history, remarking that, although 
in all human probability war would go on for another 
year and a half, xAllied troops must ultimately win, since 
it was inconceivable that injustice could triumph over 
justice or wrong over right. 

Neither wild men from French colonies nor the Germans 
were impelled by that splendid morale that stirred the 
Allies. From some French colonies cannibals were im- 
pressed into service. These savage people, if allowed, 
man to man, to use knife or club, fought with all the 
ferocity of demons but when put up into front firing- 
lines with gas and bomb and tank and machine-gun 
they became utterly uncontrollable and had to be taken 
out of the ranks and sent to the rear. 
And, too, it was morale and love of home and mother 
that drove Allies through the gates of hell, as the 
Hindenburg line was properly called. Adversely, it was 
as surely the lack of these ideals that lost the war to 
Germany. Major Furry Ferguson Montague, a Cana- 
dian soldier, military attache of our Editorial party, 
again and again decorated for bravery, made me this 
reply when asked what sent him over the top, " I '11 
tell you frankly. I know I 've been honored many times 
for bravery but I 'm nevertheless a natural coward. In 
college I excelled at football and hockey and still gradu- 
— 288 — 



a ted with fair class honors, studied law and was ad- World War 
mitted to the bar, then enlisted in Canada in Nineteen At Its 
Hundred Fourteen. Back in Winnipeg sits a dear old Climax 
mother who thinks I am the greatest athlete and the g 
brightest student that was ever graduated from Toronto ^ 
university, that I was the ablest lawyer in Winnipeg, 
and now that I am in the war, that I 'm the bravest 
fighter among all our Canadian troops. Thafs 
what drove me over the top and kept me over the top. Do 
you think I could be yellow under those circumstances .^^ 
No! she 's going to die with that high ideal of me if I 
must go to my grave to maintain it." 
Neuilly, Paris's famous racing grounds, had been given 
over to America by the French government and a 
number of base hospitals and buildings were put into 
use as Executive offices of the Red Cross, Knights of 
Columbus, the Y. M. C. A., the Salvation Army and 
similar organizations and many statistical departments. 
There was a very sizeable temporary cemetery within 
the grounds where from seven to eleven American 
victims of Spanish influenza, besides those dying in 
hospitals were buried daily. We were shown through the 
hospital buildings by a Presbyterian chaplain, a rank- 
ing American captain. 

It was the occasion of comment in passing through the 
wards that while many boys were frightfully torn and 
maimed, nearly all smiled and spoke lightly of their 
suffering which, they declared, was " all in the day's 
work." An exception was one morose lad before whom 
our ministerial guide stopped to offer words of cheer. 
" That 's an unusually pathetic case," remarked the 
chaplain as he rejoined us outside the building. " The 
boy with whom you saw me speaking is horribly and 
fatally wounded. It happened this way: Up in the front 
trenches when mail was being distributed he asked 
— ^289 — 



World War regularly for letters from home. None came. During a 

At Its red hot skirmish a companion noticed he was recklessly 

Climax exposing himself and reprimanded him for his careless- 

^ ness, declaring the Boche would get him if he did n't 

• watch out. 

" 'What does it matter anyhow? " came the swift reply. 
' No one cares for me. Why, I never even get a letter 
from home like other boys.' Then a shell came whistling 
along and burst and the casualty with whom you just 
saw me talking was carried here to Paris. 
" Two weeks ago there was brought to him here in one 
package twenty-nine letters, nearly all written by his 
mother. They had been mailed at regular intervals but 
postal service is woefully inefficient in France today, 
causing many a heartache. However, this case is by far 
the saddest one coming within my knowledge." 
The day following I went to St. Denis hospital to have 
the stitches drawn from my wounds received in an 
automobile accident heretofore described. A remark- 
ably handsome chap with a wonderfully winning smile, 
commiserated me on my injuries and with much solici- 
tude sought to learn their history. 

" Oh, I 'm all right, son; It 's only my pride that 's 
hurt," I said pointing to my disfigured face, " Let 's 
talk about you." 

Since May, it was then early November, he had lain 
on a cot with his right leg in a sling raised two feet 
higher than his body. 

Smiles wreathed his face as he said he did n't mind 
since doctors had told him he could take the leg down 
in two weeks, assuring him he could use it again. " But," 
he added slowly, with none of the smiles leaving his 
young face, " Heinie got me in the side with a piece of 
shrapnel and the wound pains me all the time. Doctors 
tell me it may never heal. What 's the difference? " 
— 290 — 



he added proudly and resignedly, *' I guess I 've done World War 
my bit all right." At Its 

" And yet you lie there and smile and ask about my rjLjjyi^x 
small hurts. God bless you, son," I said as I shook ^ 
hands in farewell. " You certainly are a brave lad. • 
You deserve to get well and I 'm going to pray you 

Will."s<> 5<N> 

And the thought entered my mind how much I had to 
be thankful for, because with me at the time on leave 
to visit me in Paris, because of my injuries, was 
my own son who fought in Belgium and France in 
that most hazardous of services, the machine gun branch 
and had come off unhurt. 

Next, a Major, who escorted me through the building 
took me into an operating wing to have the stitches 
drawn from my head and face. It occurred to me that 
the surgeon was a trifle slow and I besought him to 
hurry &^ s^ 

" It will hurt, quite a bit if I do," he replied. 
" It won't hurt a thousandth part as much as that poor 
boy's agonizing cries" I told him. 

" Doctor, please, please, doctor, let me go home to my 
wife and two kiddies," were the beseeching cries that 
floated out from an adjoining room. 
As the surgeon accompanied me to the door a few 
minutes later and bade me God speed, he turned 
toward the boy from whom the agonizing appeals came 
and said: 

" Poor fellow, he '11 never see his wife and kiddies again. 
He '11 never see another sundown." 
Discussing, with my son, that evening at our hotel in 
Paris, I asked him, from his experience and observation, 
what he believed was the underlying reason America 
had won from British and French rulers, war officers 
and statesmen, the praise she was then receiving. 
— 291 — 



? 



World War " It 's the wonderful morale of our American expedi- 
At Its tionary force, Dad," was his reply. 
Climax Continuing, he said, " The German soldier is trained as 
a part only of a great unit or machine. He has no 
initiative. Break up the machine and he 's lost — 
does n't know what to do. In such circumstances, man 
to man, one American soldier will whip three German 
fighters. But with our boys there 's a higher and a 
firmer morale. It 's the love of home and country. 
The German is just a cold, bloodless, soulless part of a 
great fighting machine because that is what his military 
training has taught him to be." 

As an example of how thoroughly our American officers 
understood the benefits of morale and appreciated how 
inspiring were the boys' constant thoughts of home 
and mother, he said, in Flanders Field where his machine 
gun went over the top and received its baptism of fire, 
so fierce and continuous were hostilities in those miser- 
able morasses, there was no such thing as stopping to 
eat and food and hot coffee were sent up to the boys on 
the front firing line. With the hot meal, if there was 
mail, it was sent along. 

" In that event. Dad," was my son's inquiry, " Which 
do you think was -taken first, coffee or letter from 
home? " 69^ &^ 

" Your question answers itself, son. They, no doubt, 
drank their coffee cold." 

And so I repeat, war was won, as it ever will be in a 
civilized world, primarilv by HOME AND MOTHER, 
AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS MOTHER. 
^ Never before in history had a people gone to war 
with such lofty aspirations or for such high ideals as 
those for which Americans fought. Against all the 
enginery of hell — every fiendish weapon perverted 
science could invent — bombing plane in air, sneaking 
— 292 — 



submarine in sea, and on land, poison gas and shrapnel World War 
and bomb and tank and Big Bertha — America had At Its 
hurried overseas from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 of the Climax 
flower of her young manhood, sons alike of the million- ,;, 
aire and the laborer, college athletes and professional ^ 
men in all ranks, sons of former Presidents, in short, 
boys gathered from all walks of life. And it was offici- 
ally asserted that between 10,000,000 and 14,000,000 
would have gone over were they needed. 
In addition, while America had expended billions of 
dollars to equip and man her own army, she had mean- 
time fed ruined and starving Belgium and loaned 
billions in treasure to Russia, Italy, France and England. 
For all this, when the day of reckoning and division of 
spoils came, America through President Wilson, protested 
that she wanted nothing, emphasizing that she had gone 
to war, not for conquest, not for territorial expansion, 
not for national aggrandizement, but in order that all 
nations, great and small, be treated equally and the 
world made safe for democracy. 

Abundant proof of America's sincerity in entering war 
are events following cessation of hostilities. She has 
given, by Congressional enactment, 25,000,000 bushels 
of wheat to starving Russia, has gone to the relief of 
the downtrodden Jew in Ukrania and other Central 
European countries and has given most generously to 
famishing hordes in China. America, of all countries, 
had resources ample to afford these reliefs. In Russia's 
case the gratuity was an unparalleled example of mag- 
nanimity, since Russia owes the United States millions 
upon milhons of borrowed money, which in all human 
probability she will never pay. As a finality it will 
probably be repudiated upon the self satisfying ground 
that there was no Constitutional authority for the 
borrowing and that as they at the time were co-allies 
— 293 — 



World War with America it was simply a contribution on her part 
At Its to the cause of the AUies. 
Climax ^^^ what of the American boy? Patriotism alone 
^ prompted him. He was inspired by that beautiful 
^ poem, entitled " Your Flag and My Flag," written by 
Wilbur B. Nesbit, and published by Volland & Com- 
pany of New York City, both of whom have given per- 
mission for it's reproduction here : 

Your flag and my flag 

And how it flies today, 
In your land and my land 

And half a world away! 
Rose-red and blood-red 

The stripes forever gleam, 
Snow-white and soul white — 

The good forefathers' dream; 
Sky-blue and true blue, with stars to gleam aright — 
The gloried guidon of the day; a shelter through the night. 

Your flag and my flag! 

To every star and stripe 
The drums beat as hearts beat 

And fifers shrilly pipe ! 
Your flag and my flag — 

A blessing in the sky; 
Your hope and my hope — 

It never hid a lie ! 
Home land and far land and half the world around. 
Old glory hears our glad salute and ripples to the sound! 

Your flag and my flag. 

And, oh, how much it holds — 
Your land and my land — 
Secure within its folds! 
Your heart and my heart 
Beat quicker at the sight: 
Sun-kissed and wind-tossed — 
Red and blue and white. 
The one flag — the great flag — the flag for me and you — 
Glorified all else beside — the red and white and blue. 

— 294 — 



Primarily, I repeat, it was the boy's love of home and World War 
mother &^ 5«» At Its 

AN THE GREATEST OF THESE IS MOTHER. Climax 
^ From every conceivable angle it has been my proud ^ 
privilege to get a close up view of our American boy. • 
/ SAW HIM AND WAS WITH HIM in training 
camp and witnessed his untiring application to drill 
and discipline and then his unbounded zeal and eager- 
ness to cross the seas and get into action. 
/ SAW HIM AND WAS WITH HIM next in a con- 
voy of 30,000 men which crossed the Atlantic in one of 
its angriest moods, a convoy which holds the lamentable 
distinction that in transporting 3,000,000 or 4,000,000 
American soldiers across it was the only one to lose a 
vessel in a storm when five hundred brave boys went 
down to death in the deep oft* the north coast of Ireland. 
/ SAW HIM AND WAS WITH HIM in training 
camps over there. 

/ SAW HIM AND WAS WITH HIM at battle- 
fronts in Belgium and France while war was in its 
awful, agonizing throes of death. 
I SAW HIM AND WAS WITH HIM in twenty 
different hospitals in France and England whither I 
went to have my wounds looked after. 
/ SAW HIM AND WAS WITH HIM when the 
mighty machine of the Hun, which the President of 
France only three weeks before had thought could 
carry on a year and a half longer, trembled convulsively, 
crumpled and utterly collapsed. 

/ SAW HIM AND WAS WITH HIM in London on 
November 11, 1918, when Armistice was announced. 
/ SAW HIM AND WAS WITH HIM (at least as 
many of him as returned) when as the Twenty-seventh 
New York division he triumphantly marched up Fifth 
— 295 — 



World War Avenue inspired by plaudits from a million throats; 
At Its and finally : 
Climax ^ ^^^ ^f ^ ^^^ A^ WITH HIM now in the peace- 
to ful pursuits to which he has returned, typifying the 
' age-old adage, "Peace hath her victories, no less re- 
nowned than war." 

HONOR MOTHER OF AMERICAN BOY WHO 
WENT TO WAR! 

HONOR AND REVERE MOTHER OF AMERICAN 
BOY WHO MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE! 
Although hostilities ceased four years ago, 
many nations are still actually at war with one another. 
International perplexities exist. Great problems are 
unsolved. Happily some progress toward a solution of 
them has been made. 

In conclusion, never again do I expect to seek my 
pillow in sleep that there shall not pass through my 
excited brain a kaleidoscopic, depressing moving picture 
of stark ruin in Belgium and France, of the cemeteries 
I saw on the hillsides with row upon row of little white 
crosses which mark the grave of the American boy 
" gone West." 

And from out that forever ineffaceable mental picture 
there arises unbidden the pathetic, still unanswered 
question : 

HAS HE DIED IN VAIN? 
GOD GRANT IT SHALL NOT BE. 
BUT TIME ALONE WILL TELL. 



291 




Those Who Have Passed On 

INCE events chronicled in the foregoing 
pages occurred, two distinguished enter- 
tainers of our editorial group and one 
member of it have joined "the innumer- 
able caravan." Strangely enough, too, 
all died of heart disease, two, suddenly. 
Mrs. Humphrey Ward, whose writings 
fascinate and charm an army of readers the world 'round, 
was a gracious hostess at a memorable dinner in London, 
to which she had bidden twelve of England's most prom- 
inent women, and at which she delivered a speech that was 
a classic. Mrs. Ward died suddenly, in London, on March 
24, 1920. 

Edward Ware Barrett, owner of the Birmingham, Ala- 
bama, Age-Herald, died in a swimming pool at Birming- 
ham July 9, 1922. 

Alfred Harmsworth, otherwise Viscount Northcliffe, gave 
numerous dinners at which were statesmen, diplomats 
and great men in different walks of life, besides being an 
associate and companion of our party. He died August 
14, 1922. 

In the world's opinion, Northcliffe and Ward have earned 
pedestals in the niches of its Hall of Fame. To us, Mrs. 
Ward is a sweet memory, a kindly, radiant, gracious 
hostess, whose classic address, near the end of war, upon 
America's magnanimity toward Germany, still sounds in 
our ears; Northcliffe, strenuous, brilliant, courtly, versatile, 
powerful, yet kind and whole-souled, who, notwithstanding 
the overwhelming cares and turmoils of war, seemed to 
find his greatest delight in being regarded as one of us, a 
good, all-around man of the newspaper world. 
Edward W. Barrett, of our own party, was an able, 
affable, big-souled, lovable and manly man. 
Vale and farewell ! 









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